Snag clothing gets 100 complaints a day that models are too fat, says boss

Jennifer Meierhans, a business correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), reported that the head of online clothing brand Snag stated that the company receives over 100 complaints daily, claiming that the models in its advertisements are "too fat."

Snag's CEO, Bridget Read, stated that models wearing the company's size 4-38 clothing are frequently targeted by "hate-filled" weight-related posts. This comes after a UK advertising regulator banned a Next advertisement featuring an "unhealthily thin" model, sparking an online debate about whether advertisements featuring "unhealthily fat" models should also be banned, in which the Snag brand was mentioned.

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) stated that, due to society's widespread pursuit of thinness, they have banned the use of models who appear unhealthily thin, rather than overweight models. In 2024, the ASA received 61 complaints about models' weight, the vast majority of which concerned models appearing too thin. However, the agency only had grounds to investigate eight of these complaints, and none were related to Snag.

Katharine Thom contacted the BBC after reading its report on the banning of the Next advertisement, stating that she believes it is "hypocritical to ban advertisements featuring models who appear too thin on the grounds that it is socially irresponsible, but when models are visibly obese, we call it body positivity." Thom, 36, from Edinburgh, was one of several people to express this view to the BBC, and a post on Reddit also had over 1,000 comments, many revolving around the same theme.

Ms. Thom said that after purchasing items from Snag during her pregnancy, she was "bombarded with photos of morbidly obese girls in leggings." She said: "I see Snag leggings posting these morbidly obese people all over social media. How is this allowed when Next's photos of models were banned? There should be fairness, not politically correct body positivity. Normalizing advertisements with unhealthy weights, whether obese or severely underweight, is equally harmful."

But Snag founder Ms. Read stated: "Fat-shaming people doesn't help them lose weight; in fact, it really affects mental health, which in turn affects their physical health." She believes that the idea of banning advertisements featuring larger-sized models is a symptom of society's "fat phobia." Of her 100 employees, 12 are specifically responsible for "deleting negative comments and supporting those who promote body positivity."

"Fat people exist, they are just as valid as thin people, they buy clothes, and they need to see what clothes look like on people who look like them," she said. "The bigger you are, the less valued you are. Models of all sizes, shapes, races, and abilities are valid and should be represented."

Sophie Scott, a 27-year-old salon owner from Lossiemouth, Scotland, who has modeled for Snag, has received both positive and negative comments on social media about her body shape. "I either get 'you're so beautiful' or 'you need to lose weight.' When I started modeling, I was a size 30. Since losing weight, I still get hate comments because, for some people, it's never enough."

Sophie is used to online comments saying she is "unhealthy," but she says, "Health isn't measured by your appearance. They are making assumptions; they don't know me or my activity levels. People say 'you're glorifying obesity,' but I don't think anyone looks at me and says 'I want to look like that.' Maybe some people look at me and say 'she's a similar size to me.'"

"When I get a message from someone saying 'we're the same size, you've inspired me to wear what I want,' it cancels out every hate comment I receive. If I've helped one person accept their body, then the hate comments really don't bother me."

Fashion journalist Victoria Moss believes that this "depressing" debate shows that society is not yet accustomed to seeing larger-sized people in advertising campaigns. "You struggle to find true plus-size models on retailers' websites, because even mid-size is a size 10/12, and plus-size is a 14/16, which is actually close to the average size for women in the UK," she said.

"The problem with advertisements showing very thin or very fat models is the context and the provocation. We know that people with eating disorders will seek out images of very thin people as 'thinspiration.' But if someone sees a photo of a larger-sized person, they're not going to drive out and buy 10 McDonald's to try and make themselves fat."

Jessie Tael of the ASA told the BBC that the agency receives approximately 35,000 complaints about all advertisements each year, and in 2024, it received 61 complaints about 52 advertisements related to models' weight. She said that if an advertisement could be seen as encouraging people to pursue an unhealthy weight, then the advertisement will be investigated. Advertisements that are merely promoting body confidence and using models relevant to the product's size range will not be investigated.

"It's about the wider societal context. We know that currently in the UK, society tends to view slimness as ideal and being overweight as not."