London mayor bans body-shaming ads on public transport

London's new mayor Sadiq Khan has vowed to ban advertisements that promote an "unrealistic or unhealthy" body image from the city's transport system.

Mr Khan's decision comes in the wake of the controversial Protein World ad campaign, which asked women: "Are You Beach Body Ready?", sparking 378 complaints to the advertising watchdog last year.

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The mayor, who made the pledge during his campaign, said the ban will be implemented on Transport for London (TfL) from next month and claimed the adverts were likely to cause confidence problems amongst young people.

"As the father of two teenage girls, I am extremely concerned about this kind of advertising, which can demean people, particularly women, and make them ashamed of their bodies," Mr Khan said, according to the ABC.

"It is high time it came to an end. Nobody should feel pressurised, while they travel on the Tube or bus, into unrealistic expectations surrounding their bodies, and I want to send a clear message to the advertising industry about this."

Mr Khan also called for an Advertising Steering Group to make sure his new policy is kept under review.

Graeme Craig, TfL commercial development director, said: "Advertising on our network is unlike TV, online and print media.

"Our customers cannot simply switch off or turn a page if an advertisement offends or upsets them and we have a duty to ensure the copy we carry reflects that unique environment.

"We want to encourage great advertising that engages people and enhances the transport network."

Meanwhile Protein World have kept an unapologetic stance over their controversial ad, failing to remove the image from their Facebook page despite many being defaced by the public at Tube stations across the country.

The ad was not banned by the Advertising Standards Authority, who have banned ads by Gucci and Saint Laurent in the past for featuring models they deemed "too thin".

"We considered the claim "Are you beach body ready?" prompted readers to think about whether they were in the shape they wanted to be for the summer and we did not consider that the accompanying image implied that a different body shape to that shown was not good enough or was inferior," they said in a statement.

"We concluded that the headline and image were unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence. [...] Although we understood the claim "Are you beach body ready?" invited readers to think about their figures, we did not consider the image of the model would shame women who had different body shapes into believing they needed to take a slimming supplement to feel confident wearing swimwear in public."