Beauty blogger Kris Fox is calling for Avon to rethink their marketing strategies after the cosmetics giant promoted a campaign which included the slogan: 'Dimples on your face are cute (not on your thighs)'.
While scrolling through her Facebook feed, the Fiji-born influencer says she was immediately "triggered" by the "unrealistic beauty standard".
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"As a beauty company, they shouldn't be promoting negative connotations behind certain body traits," Kris told Newshub.
"It's setting a bad example on how you should be and it just p**sed me off."
The 25-year-old took to her Twitter account to vent her feelings and was amazed by the overwhelming response from her followers who agreed with her.
"I thought this needs to be brought to light that this is not good. A lot of people had seen it but didn't feel they could speak out about it and were thanking me for calling Avon out."
Kris, who lives in Auckland, says it's vital to be promoting a positive beauty standard in 2019 that is inclusive of difference and variety among both sexes.
"I like to promote people being themselves and being comfortable in who they are, so anything that stands against that principle can be frustrating."
She believes it's important to stand up to advertising and messages that make people feel left out or bad about themselves.
Her advice to young boys and girls is to never let anyone else's opinion weigh in on how they feel about themselves.
"Don't be influenced by all these corporations telling you to 'do this' to 'get rid of that', or 'try this to be better' - you should do things that make you feel good.
"Know that you are beautiful whether it's how you look or who you are as an individual."
The campaign also caught the eye of UK actress Jameela Jamil who shared her disappointment in the company's choice of words.
"And yet EVERYONE has dimples on their thighs, I do, you do, and the CLOWNS at @Avon_UK certainly do," she wrote on Twitter.
"Stop shaming women about age, gravity and cellulite. They're inevitable, completely normal things. To make us fear them and try to 'fix' them, is to literally set us up for failure."
Avon responded to Jamil's criticism with an apology and accepted they had made an error.
"Hi Jameela, we completely understand where you're coming from. We realize that we missed the mark with this messaging. We have removed this messaging from all future marketing materials. We fully support our community in loving their bodies and feel confident in their own skin."
In another post on the company's page, Avon committed to remove the wording from their advertising material, admitting it had "messed up".
Jamil praised the company for listening, adding: "This right here is progress".
Kris says she would like to know who came up with the wording.
"Who is the idiot that came up with the idea and thought that would be a good way to promote their new product," she asked.
"It's basically saying that being thicker or having cellulite is just ugly, it's not instilling confidence into people, it's basically tearing them down."
Acknowledging the company has since apologised, Kris encourages Avon's marketing company to "think twice before they act" going forward.
"Think about the impact their words can have on society and definitely young people."
Newshub.
