“Summer is ours too” is the campaign’s slogan. Besides the fact that the women in the photo are of different body types and ages, one of them shows the consequences of a mastectomy.
A body-positive advertising campaign launched by the Spanish government has sparked controversy after models complained that their images were used without their permission. The image of one of them was edited – instead of her prosthetic, a leg was “drawn” for her.
Spain’s Ministry of Equality and the Women’s Institute launched a summer campaign this week to encourage women who are concerned about their appearance to go to the beach. “The summer is ours too,” reads the slogan above an image of five women with different appearances. The world’s leading media wrote about the campaign, which was supported by Spain’s Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, who said on Twitter: “All bodies are beach bodies. But the praise for social advertising was soon replaced by criticism.
On Friday, London-based plus-size model Naomi Nicholas-Williams revealed that a photo from her Instagram was used for a poster. No one asked the girl’s permission. In the poster, Nayom wears a gold bikini – she sits on the sand and turns her head toward the viewer. The model revealed that one of her 78,000 followers told her about the poster after the campaign gained popularity. “I was shocked because I had never seen anything like this before,” the model said. “This is not a stock photo, this is a picture that I posted on my Instagram. It is offensive and disrespectful,” she added.
After Naiom complained about what happened on social media, representatives of the illustrator who created the final version of the poster contacted her. “They said they used my image because they didn’t have enough time,” the model explained, adding that they apologized and offered compensation. “I am upset because if I had been asked from the beginning and had the opportunity to make a decision, I probably would have agreed,” she explained.
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But the scandals did not end there – the next day, another British model complained that her image had been used by the Spanish government without permission. In addition, the designers edited her photo by “drawing” a leg on her instead of a prosthetic. 32-year-old Cian Green-Lord said she heard about the poster from her friends. The model’s image is in the lower left corner of the poster. She posted a story on Instagram saying she was “furious” when she saw the photo had been edited. It turns out that not only was her amputated leg “restored,” but they also added unshaven armpits and changed her swimsuit. “I don’t even know how to explain the level of anger I’m feeling right now,” she says in the video. “It’s one thing to use my image without permission. But there’s something else – they edited my body.” “I literally don’t know what to say except that it’s incredibly wrong,” the model added.
A woman lost her leg after being hit by a taxi while vacationing in New York in 2013. She was walking with her friend when the car hit the curb. On the website of the Arte Mapache project, which was responsible for creating the poster, apologies have already been published for using images without permission. “In light of the legitimate disputes over the rights to the images in the illustration, I have decided that the best way to compensate for any harm that may have resulted from my actions is to split the money I received for the work and give equal shares to the women depicted in the poster,” the illustrator said. “I hope to resolve all of this as soon as possible, I acknowledge my mistakes, so I am trying to repair the damage,” she added. Currently, the Arte Mapache website has been removed and access to the pages on “Facebook” and “Instagram” is restricted. The Spanish government has not yet commented on the scandal. But in a statement earlier this week, the Spanish Women’s Institute said the campaign was a response to “fatphobia, hatred and criticism of non-normative bodies (especially female ones), which are most prevalent in the summer.”