Controversy has erupted over sales of a new T-shirt which feature an anti-eating quote supermodel Kate moss gave in an interview almost two years ago.
The saying ‘Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’ – which Moss said is a motto she lives by - is emblazoned on a child’s T-shirt retailing for £11.65.
Website www.zazzle.co.uk is selling the t-shirt as part of a ‘size zero slogan’ merchandise range which includes a ‘please don’t feed the model’ babygrow for £17.
Moss initially uttered the infamous phrase in November 2009 during an interview with fashion news website WWD.
When the svelte supermodel was asked if she lived by any maxims, she replied: “There are loads of mottos. There’s ‘Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’. That’s one of them.”
“You try and remember, but it never works,” she added.
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Now the phrase has re-emerged in T-shirt form, sparking outrage among eating disorder experts who have called for a ban on adverts for the T-shirts which are sold in sizes that fit school-aged children and babies.
The clothing line - which Moss is not affiliated with - is created and marketed by an American firm called Teen Modelling and sold on the zazzle.co.uk website.
A sensible eating organisation based in the UK called Beating Eating Disorders (BEAT) has deemed the sale of these clothing items aimed at children to be ‘dangerous’.
A BEAT spokesperson told The Daily Mail: “We absolutely disagree with what this company and its website is doing. Using children to model this kind of pro-anorexia product is clearly and plainly wrong.
“It’s clearly a very dangerous message and one that should not be reaching girls at a young and impressionable age.”
BEAT added that it would like to see The Advertising Standards Authority use its new powers to regulate internet advertising as a means of requiring zazzle.co.uk to remove the T-shirt pages advertising the products.
A spokesman for the Advertising Standards Agency said the website’s marketing of the T-shirts could be in violation of recently extended Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code.
An ASA spokesman stated: “Any complaints of this nature, that we receive from concerned members of the public, would certainly be looked into and considered very seriously.
“Direct advertising and marketing on the internet has to be within the rules of the CAP Code.
“The directives in the code which cover the area of children and the marketing of children’s products on the internet are very strict indeed.”
According to The Daily Mail, zazzle.co.uk has not taken a direct stance on the criticisms. “Zazzle does not have a specific comment on the ‘size-zero slogan’ merchandise,” a spokesperson for the website said.
“Because Zazzle is a custom products platform, it enables all users to create their own products that feature their own content.
“In this way, Zazzle is an outlet for users to express their personal opinions and viewpoints.”
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