Implant Ad

The largest gym chain in Australia is getting blasted by members

Fitness First Lifestyle network is an in-house program watched by gym members as they exercise. The problem is, between music clips, they show commercials promoting breast implants, liposuction and nose jobs. And the members are getting a little irate.

One of the members comments, "I go to the gym to exercise and to stay fit and healthy. But some women feel under pressure to have the perfect body and these ads suggest that to have a perfect body you need to have breast implants.

"I think that they have a responsibility to promote health and well-being in a more positive way than that.'

Nikki Goldstein agrees. She is the author of Girlforce, and an expert on self-esteem issues in women.

"I think this is advertising by stealth- it is beating women up when they are most vulnerable. They are in their gym gear, looking at other women's bodies and then comparing themselves. I feel uncomfortable about that form of advertising.'

But plastic surgeon Howard De Torres says that his ads are subtle.

"We're just putting our name in the marketplace. It is no worse than putting it in a magazine or the telephone book. These ads are very low key and they don't go through any particular procedure- they just portray me as a very capable person.

"We are not aiming to belittle anybody, we just know that people who do think about [plastic surgery] go to gyms and that is where they see the name.'

But the gym has recently released a statement that it will stop playing the ads after the existing contracts have finished.