March 20, 2012
Knesset passes law banning underweight models
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Photographer Adi Barkan works in his studio in Tel Aviv Mar. 19. Photo by REUTERS/Nir Elias
Israel’s Knesset approved a new law that would ban the use of underweight models in advertising.
The law passed Monday night also requires that any ad digitally altered to make a model look thinner must say so in the advertisement.
Kadima Party lawmaker Rachel Adatto, a doctor who specializes in health issues among young women, authored the bill. The idea is to prevent young people from aspiring unhealthily toward impossible body-image goals.
According to the law, models with a Body Mass Index below 18.5 would be prohibited from appearing in advertisements.
“This law will send a message to teenagers that being thin is acceptable, but slimness has its limits, and there is such a thing as too thin,” Ynet quoted Adatto as saying after the law was passed.
The Likud’s Danny Danon, who proposed the bill with Adatto, called the measure a “knockout in the war against anorexia.”
Danon said he was contacted about the law by members of the U.S. Congress who are considering promoting a similar law, according to Ynet.
