If you're a frequent Instagram user then it's likely that you've come across a picture of a celebrity holding up a pouch of Flat Tummy Tea. Well, the brand's newest product, appetite-suppressant lollipops, are causing quite a controversy — and we can totally see why!
Flat Tummy Co.'s tea and other products are heavily promoted by celebrities like the Kardashians.
Reality stars and social media influencers Kourtney, Khloe, and Kim Kardashian, as well as Tori Spelling and Farrah Abraham, have all been paid to promote Flat Tummy products.
The Flat Tummy Co. lollipops each contain 35 calories and use Satiereal to help suppress the consumer's hunger.
According to the Flat Tummy Co. website:
"Our Lollipops feature SATIEREAL, a clinically proven safe active ingredient extracted from natural plants. It works to maximize satiety (which helps control food intake, cravings and weight). So with 1-2 pops per day, you’ll have your hunger under control and cravings in-check. Just have one whenever you start to feel hungry and it’ll help hold you over until your next meal!"
However, body positive activist Tess Holliday is not having it! She has started a petition to remove a billboard advertising the lollipops.
The giant billboard is right in New York's Times Square for millions of people to see.
The petition has now been updated with a goal of 25,000 signatures and at the time of writing this it has received more than 19,000.
"Telling young women and girls to ignore or suppress their hunger is dangerous," Tess wrote on Instagram.
Tess took to Instagram to share why products and advertisements like this can be so harmful and perpetuate a sexist diet culture. She wrote:
"Hunger is your body’s way of communicating when it needs food, which gives us energy, without which we cannot survive. There is something deeply wrong when marketers tell women that their appearance (based on sexist body standards) is more important than their health and survival.
As a fat woman, I can’t tell you the number of people who’ve told me that I should stop eating, or eat less. Or the number of people who’ve treated me terribly because of my size. We need to stop telling women and girls that they are only worth how skinny they are.
Messaging like this makes us more likely to start restrictive diets which too often lead to eating disorders. Diet culture is making us sick — and Flat Tummy Co. is profiting off it by selling us candy that’s not even FDA-approved."
As the petition nears its goal, we can only hope that the billboard will be removed sooner rather than later.
Brands like this that advertise to people, especially young women, and tell them that they need to "suppress their hunger" in order to look good proves that society still has a long way to go when it comes to body inclusivity. Instead of profiting off of people's insecurities, brands clearly need to do a better job of showing people to embrace and love their bodies as they are.
We're so glad that Tess is taking a stand! If you're interested in signing the petition, head over to Change.org.
