Body Positive Marketing: Boon or Bust?

In the spirit of living within my beliefs and fostering positive change, I found myself torn when looking for a pair of new workout leggings recently. Should I buy a pair of workout leggings because the company selling them promotes body positivity and is inclusive of larger bodies over a company that doesn't? On the one hand, encouraging the celebration and normalisation of diverse bodies in advertisements seems, on the surface, to be a good thing in helping change the discourse around the bodies we see most frequently in media. On the other hand, the extent to which it is a good thing is questionable as the end goal is, after all, to sell a product. This is a quandary I recently faced as a consumer trying to be more conscious. Do I support companies who appear to be trying to do something right? Are their efforts towards inclusiveness and body positivity actually a good thing at all? Or do these type of advertisements lie somewhere between helpful and harmful? 

What is the best course of action? 

One of many similar images promoting their wide size range on PopFit's Instagram page @popfitclothing

Tackling the question of whether advertisements promoting body positivity are a boon or a bust often begins with the Internet and social media. Those of us active on the Internet over the last few years have been subjected to targeted, personalised ads. As the technology becomes more sophisticated, our search engine activity, the websites we visit, the specific products we click on, and the products we buy all feed into algorithms which track and store our activity as a consumer and then present related advertisements to tempt us into spending even more. In many regards, they have begun to stalk us opening a whole separate ethical issue. Search the term of, say, "body positivity" with any frequency and products promoting body positivity will begin appearing. Searching that term led me to be categorised as a target audience on Instagram for sponsored ads for POP Fit athletic wear , a women owned brand that offers sizes ranging from xsmall to xxxlarge and consistently features women of colour, disabled women, fat women, and bodies of all types on their social media accounts. Since I was looking for another pair of workout leggings, I was intrigued. Their advertisements and posts on their Instagram page featured many fat women with large fat rolls and visible cellulite underneath their leggings, women of colour, disabled, and diverse women in a way that didn't seem like tokenism but a genuine attempt to make the brand inclusive and celebratory of everyone. Even the smaller women looked realistic (lumps, bumps, tummy, and such) and the brand also featured very slim women here and there to make sure everyone was represented. There was also an emphasis on practical comfort, pockets, and features that women want rather than the emphasis on sexiness often seen in athletic brand advertisements. The comments from the company on their posts always echoed the sentiment that all bodies are good bodies and that all women deserve to be included and represented. To that end, most of their posts are hashtagged with a variety of body positive hashtags as well.  
Many comments on POP Fit's posts from real people thanked them for the representation of bodies that look like theirs, the range of sizes, comfort, and features like roomy pockets that make their lives easier. Differentiating POP Fit from other brands' attempts at body positivity and inclusion such as Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty borne from the need to revive the brand and make it more competitive rather than inclusiveness being its original goal, POP Fit seems to be doing something right. 

 @popfitclothing

The positives to POP Fit's advertising are compelling. Not only offering a practical and fashionable product to people with all types of bodies, the brand also participates in the normalisation of different types of bodies - especially larger bodies. This kind of conscious disruption of the typical "normal" bodies seen in the majority of advertisements composing the casual media that floats across our screens is a small but important contribution to helping change media norms. For those with larger bodies, that consistent positive representation in a culture that tends to hate fat people can also be an important reminder that fat is beautiful and has a place in the public eye. 

 @popfitclothing and @lilyflowers_

On the other hand, despite POP Fit's good intentions, they are a company ultimately trying to persuade consumers into buying a product. That is why I was targeted for one of their sponsored ads. Their frequent message of bodily inclusiveness and positivity - while arguably helping change the narrative of who is allowed to be represented in the media - is limited, separated from radical body politics, and self-serving. The question of whether body positivity is itself actually a positive development is also in question. While it is important for spaces for positivity and affirmation surrounding bodies to exist, the fact that many people have conflicting feelings about their bodies, the fact that not everyone loves their body (or all the time), and the fact that many people live in a culture that views their body as wrong is not addressed in the blanket statement "love yourself". That statement or sentiment requires the viewer to agree regardless of their own feelings or struggles or risk becoming "negative" for dissenting. Fostering positive feelings and a sense of belonging is useful from a marketing perspective to build customer loyalty, but it does little for the person who doesn't love themself who still wants a pair of leggings. And that is where perhaps POP Fit falls short the most.

In the end, I didn't actually buy any leggings at all. I instead opted to buy another pair of athletic shoes after finding a hole in my old pair. But I will still seriously consider POP Fit for my next pair of leggings because, despite their limitations as a for-profit company and the problems that arise when brands use body positivity to build brand loyalty, I do think that the company is on a better track. And, while we may want to change the world, we have to also live in it. Small steps in the right direction are better than none, and a smaller, women owned company that consistently promotes larger and diverse bodies may be a better choice out of many that are none of them perfect. As long as we leave the real activism to the activists and remember we are potential customers, POP Fit might be just the place to get some workout clothes.