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27 April 2007
Sydney
As the fashion world prepares to descend on Sydney for the upcoming Australian Fashion Week, a recent survey by research company Nielsen reveals that nine out of 10 Australians think fashion models are too thin, re-sparking debate around the fashion industry’s promotion of underweight models.
The results were revealed this week in a survey conducted by The Nielsen Company which polled over 25,000 Internet users in 45 countries, including over 500 consumers in Australia, on whether they thought female fashion models and many celebrities were too thin.
“Models’ and celebrities’ weights hit the headlines recently in the lead up to Milan, Paris and New York Fashion Weeks and as the world’s fashion eyes turn to Sydney this will no doubt be a topic for debate once again,” states John Panagiotidis, Director, Client Service, ACNielsen, a unit of The Nielsen Company. “We saw in Milan that the world’s medical professions, governments and public opinion groups joined forces to lobby the fashion industry against presenting unhealthy, underweight images of models that promote eating disorders, it will be interesting to see how these groups respond to these findings.”
The survey also highlighted some interesting differences in opinions between genders, with men much less likely than women to object to thin models – as many as 15 percent of men did not believe female fashion models and celebs were too thin compared to just five percent of women.
“The fact that the male/female response differs by 10 percentage points is significant and perhaps reflects the pressure today’s women feel to be thin,” notes Panagiotidis.
Globally the survey results demonstrated a strong link between the concept of beauty and thinness in relation to a country’s quality of life. Norway (94%), New Zealand and Switzerland (92%), and Australia (90%) topped global rankings for the ‘too thin’ debate. Coincidentally, the same countries also consistently top global rankings for having the best quality of life. Other ’anti-skinny’ countries included the UK, Brazil and Canada (89%) and Austria and Spain (88%). See Chart 1.
“These countries believe in the healthy concept of beauty and culturally also reject the super skinny model types that follow fashion trends,” observes Panagiotidis. “New Zealand and Australia boast top international models like Elle Macpherson and Rachel Hunter who reached the top of their game without starving themselves to unhealthy proportions.”
Consumers in Asia and emerging Eastern European markets were least likely to say that female fashion models are too thin. Vietnamese consumers (59%) were least likely globally to think that models are too thin, followed by 64 percent of Indians and 63 percent of Japanese. In Eastern Europe, 65 percent of Lithuanians and 72 percent of Russians top the ‘not too thin’ rankings.
Chart 1: Top 10 countries globally agreeing models and many celebrities are too thin
About ACNielsen
ACNielsen, a division of the Nielsen Company, is the world’s leading marketing information provider. Offering services in more than 100 countries, ACNielsen provides measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics and consumer attitudes and behaviour. Clients rely on ACNielsen’s market research, proprietary products, analytical tools and professional service to understand competitive performance, to uncover new opportunities and to raise the profitability of their marketing and sales campaigns. For further information, please visit http://www.nielsen.com
About The Nielsen Company
The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek), trade shows and the newspaper sector (Scarborough Research). The privately held company has more than 42,000 employees and is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com.
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