5 brands that no longer focus on model standards

In recent years, brands have started to use social issues more often in advertising their products: Volkswagen touched upon the problem of parental lying, Kenco (Mondelez International) – teenage employment in third world countries, Nestle urged women to follow breast health. Sports brands are no exception, and sometimes the engine of the industry.

We tell you how sporting goods became promoted through imperfections.

Nike and plus-size

The American giant of the sports industry was one of the first to use non-standard models in its advertising campaigns. That’s why you can often see full models, athletes with prosthetic limbs and people suffering from various ailments in the brand’s ads.

The presence of plus-size models in the ads was not enough for Nike. They went even further and in 2019, they placed oversized mannequins in their stores. This was done for the comfort of visitors, so that people of large build would not suffer from their own imperfection while shopping.

One of the latest campaigns was a collaboration with Trina Nicole, a British plus-size model who opened the first dance section for overweight people in the UK, The Curve Catwalk.

Missguided and the rejection of retouching

The Missguided brand has abandoned the use of Photoshop in its campaigns, without announcing the decision anywhere. It all started in 2018, when the firm ran a campaign with the hashtag #KEEPONBEINGYOU (“keep being you”) involving different types of models: plus-size, with skin features and scars.

In this way, Missguided wanted to show that it is possible to be yourself and accept your “flaws”. The brand’s mission is to convince people to accept their individuality and not to strive for an infinite ideal that doesn’t exist. To date, the brand does not deviate from the set course and helps thousands of women to love their bodies.

Trends editor

In any of the advertising campaigns announced as body-positive, we are sure to see women. We all realize that beauty standards put just as much pressure on men. However, when was the last time you saw an advertisement that showed not a pumped up body, but an ordinary male torso, perhaps a little “swollen” with excess? To remember such a thing, I had to try really hard. In 2015, Norwegian clothing brand Dressmann ran a commercial that starred men of different ages and with a variety of body types in underwear. And then there’s Savage x Fenty, which is inclusive. That’s it, I can’t think of any more examples, and I’ve seen a lot of ad campaigns.