“You’ve got explicit adverts being aimed at young women around breast cosmetic surgery.”
Adverts for cosmetic surgery shown during Love Island have been criticised by a leading medic.
The shows airs on ITV in the UK – where the controversial ads were shown.
The same show is broadcast concurrently on 3e in Ireland, however, the commercials were not shown here.
Speaking on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, the NHS’s Simon Stevens said that such messaging was damaging the health of young women, and contributing to their negative body image.
Mr Stevens told Andrew Marr: “You’ve got explicit adverts being aimed at young women around breast cosmetic surgery. That is all playing in to a set of pressures around body image that are showing up.
“The time has come to think long and hard about whether we should be exposing young people to those kinds of pressures.”
A ban of junk food advertising that targets children is currently being looked at, and Mr Stevens said that adverts like those during Love Island should also be under scrutiny.
A top psychologist also echoed Mr Stevens’s statements.
Dr Jon Goldin, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist and vice chair of the CAP Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, told The Independent that she found the advertising “reprehensible”.
“Preying on young girls’ insecurities about their bodies for commercial gain is, in my view, really.
“I think any advertising for cosmetic surgery is questionable, but locating it during Love Island where people are walking around in bikinis with unusually fit bodies – people are going to compare themselves unfavourably and that’s going to make them feel more insecure.”
