Star Models | You Are Not A Sketch x Say No To Anorexia Campaign

"Star Models, a modeling agency based in Brazil, has released a graphic new anti-anorexia ad campaign, using Photoshop to turn models into life-size fashion illustrations. The ads, which run with the tag line 'Say no to anorexia,' show a fashion illustration with typically exaggerated proportions next to a model wearing the same outfit - and the same measurements." - www.dailymail.co.uk

Coming from a modelling agency this is rich- pun intended. To some the campaign can be viewed as trivial and implausible. Star Models may not have skeletal girls on their books as depicted on the campaign, but I can bet you my last Randela (slang for South African Rand) that most of their girls are a Diet Coke sip away from what they trying to 'warn' as about.  The truth is, these kinds of images will only fuel the mental disorder that is; BDD (Body dysmorphic disorder), Ana (Anorexia nervosa ) and the likes. This is really just a mind fuck, how do you expect people to listen to an intuition that operates in an industry notorious for being curt and telling people that: “they are fat”, cannot and never will make it as models because of thier weight, bone structure, skin colour amongst other things. If not that bluntly put, they say it in high context message laced with high end designer sarcasm.

Perception vz reality. They agency clearly perceive their ‘cause’ as worthy one and having an implacable voice fighting against body disorder when in fact reality is that they are themselves building blocks to the cause. You simply cannot do one thing and turn around and try sell us a veneered version of it. Star Models might not feel that way, because they are detached from the reality outside the confinements of their model agency industry box. The general perception of people on the streets about being a model is that you have to be super skinny. The modelling agents in these agencies have a reputation for shadding and vogueing nodels about their “imperfections”. The reality is, Joe Soap on the streets cannot differentiate between a ‘healthy super skinny’ model and an ‘unhealthy skinny’ one. To him or her they are all the same ‘TOO THIN’

Reality is that these kinds of campaigns do not make much of a difference to people who they are mainly targeted towards. To them they serve as the glorification of their psychological problem and they thrive on it. For the pro-anas out there, all they thinking is: “OhErrmGee, THIS LOOKS SOO FIERCE, I WANT THOSE POTRUDING COLLAR BONES, SOMEONE PLEASE PASS ME A DOUBLE LAXATIVE COCKTAIL RIGHT NOW!” Most of them no longer want to be a ‘size zero’ skinny they want to be AIDS skinny – that is the new skinny darhling. I was just as shocked when I heard that new term of skinny, I was like pardon moi, AIDS-WHAT?

This is NOT a campaign against anorexia but the holy grail of the thinspiration artwork there is out there; a shimmering beacon of THE IT SKINNY GOAL. For as long as VOGUE Italia still has segregations like ‘VOGUE Curvy’ and ‘VOGUE Black’ this is just a waste of time or rather a fabulous Pro-Ana reverse psychology campaign on the masses because in VOGUE we trust!