Toronto – Zulu Alpha Kilo and NEDIC (National Eating Disorder Information Centre) have launched a powerful campaign to bring attention to their cause.  The campaign launches on the heels of Eating Disorder Awareness Week in Canada, which took place last week (Feb. 1 – 7).

For years, NEDIC has provided information and resources to individuals affected by eating disorders and food/weight preoccupation. It was time to take aim at some of the influencers. Together with their communications agency Zulu Alpha Kilo, NEDIC has created a campaign that targets marketers and fashion leaders who are guilty of casting thin women in their ads or fashion spreads. Research has shown that even brief exposure to images of thin models negatively affects body image in girls and women, making them susceptible to eating disorders – which could explain why over half of all Canadian women diet and one in four teenage girls fast, binge or purge. 

With the over-arching message of ‘Cast responsibly. Retouch minimally’, the campaign encourages the target to re-evaluate how they cast. Among the pieces is a 'Hallmark-style' card with the greeting “Thanks for helping to make me such a successful anorexic." Another execution features an impossibly tiny T-shirt sent to beauty and lifestyle marketers with the accompanying message "Please try this on to experience how your ads make us feel." A transit shelter rallies women to shed their weight problem by shedding their beauty magazines, a prime source of the very myths and attitudes that make so many women feel insecure. The poster contains a slot through which onlookers can literally dump their beauty magazines.  In the words of Zulu’s President & Creative Director, Zak Mroueh, “We want advertisers and marketers to be more accountable. We have the power to change the criteria for the casting process."

Online plays a vital role in the campaign with all of the communication pieces directing viewers to the NEDIC website. Marketers and fashion leaders are directed to an online pledge where they are asked to commit to "casting responsibly and retouching minimally”.  The general public can also get involved by going to www.nedic.ca, and signing an online petition that urges the marketers to broaden their definition of beauty. The campaign aims to bring about positive change in two industries that have proved remarkably narrow and inadequate in how they define and portray female beauty.   The Director of NEDIC, Merryl Bear said, “we’re doing this to create a movement to change behavior in the long run, among marketers and fashion leaders”.