Controversial ads for a controversial product — Flat Tummy Tea: playing on women’s insecurities?

11 min readJun 14, 2020

Flat Tummy Tea and Co is a global digital business founded in 2013, their main advertising focus is online, and their target audience is young females ranging from the age of eighteen to their mid-thirties. The company specialises in a range of ‘detox teas’, ‘flat tummy shakes’ and ‘appetite suppressant lollipops’ and their aims are ‘helping women look and feel like the best versions of themselves’ (Flat Tummy Tea and Co, par.1) However, they have faced much criticism with their product from health care professionals and the wider public. They have also faced criticism within the way they choose to market and advertise their product, mostly using popular social media platforms such as Instagram. Flat Tummy Tea uses a lot of Instagram influencers and models to sell their products notably including the Kardashian sisters. Not only are they looking to advertise their products by doing this but advertise a lifestyle that almost seems to come with being pretty and skinny. The advertising they create plays upon the insecurities of women to look a certain way in today’s society. They sell an image of sisterhood only to tell women the sole acceptable way to be is thin. The adverts that Flat Tummy Tea and Co put out reflect what wider social media and society expect a ‘perfect’ woman to look like. Within this essay, I aim to explore the way in which Flat Tummy Tea and Co use their controversial advertising to target the insecurities of women and sell them not only dangerous weight loss products but an unrealistic lifestyle that they seem to pair with being thin. This is ultimately a reflection of what wider society thinks about women and their bodies.

It is essential before analysing the way in which Flat Tummy Tea advertise their product to know the market they take advantage of and how they adopt wider societal messages to women regarding the way they look. Nowadays there seem to be endless pictures and videos of seemingly perfect-looking women on social media sites such as Instagram. All the women somehow seem to have flat stomachs, flowing hair, perfect sized breasts and bottoms and a classic half-smile half-laugh across their faces. Many of these pictures are taken on backdrops of beautiful beaches, relaxed city breaks or just chilling at home. For the consumers of these pictures, being girls aged eighteen to twenty-nine (Aslam), this seems to be an idealistic way to live their lives. Not only do these women have all the ideal physical features they are also seen to be living a lavish and perfect lifestyle, or at least this is what is presented on social media. This then translates into pressure for most women who are not ‘Instagram models’ to look and act a certain way to be able to live a life of fulfillment as presented in these images. They can see the connection between what looks like being happy and having a perfect life to the values of being skinny and photo-ready at every moment. Smolak and Thompson note that ‘exposure to media messages can impart unrealistic images of female beauty. Internalization of these distorted images is of concern because it can lead to body dissatisfaction, a key predictor of disordered eating’ (Smolak 3–14). This highlights how these images can lead to not only general dissatisfaction in women but to more dangerous consequences such as disordered eating. Flat Tummy Tea really feeds into this market and uses social media sites such as Instagram to not only sell their products to women but the seemingly perfect lifestyle and body that comes with it, only adding to the pressure that women face.

Although a typical Instagram advertisement from an influencer paid by Flat Tummy Tea does not appear to follow a script there is certain trigger words used over again that I have found during my research. These included ‘fast metabolism’, ‘reducing bloating’ (Bortolozzo, par.1) and endless mentions of getting that ‘summer bod’ (Supa, par.1) In the last twenty-four hours I have counted 47 paid advertisements that Flat Tummy Tea and Co have carried out with Instagram influencers all with the same format as previously described. I think it is important to first note the use of triggering diet culture words within the advertisement. Things such as ‘fast metabolism’ and ‘reducing bloating’ offers an almost instant fix to having a flat stomach. Although not explicitly said it is implied that all that is needed to lose weight and gain that ‘flat tummy’ is the use of their teas and shakes. The reason why these words are diet culture trigger words is they negatively resonate with women and girls consuming this media. At some point, most women have wished they had a faster metabolism or that they would not experience bloating. These are all things that are completely natural for a woman to experience but because of companies like Flat Tummy Tea, they have built a negative stigma around these words making their audience think that ‘bloating’ and not having a ‘fast metabolism’ is a negative quality and you must be doing things to actively prevent this. This is how they advertise their products; making women feel insecure about completely natural processes within their bodies.

Moving on to analyse the image paired with the previously examined language in the description of these adverts. Most of them feature a model smiling and posing with the product, a lot of them wearing crop tops and sports bras showing off their toned stomachs. This highlights how this product appears to be working for them. They are happy because they seem to have found a product that helps them lose weight and make them feel positive about their body image. All of them are pictured with the branded pink product in their hands or next to them so the consumer can see the connection between the influencer’s happiness and the product. Furthermore, a lot of these women are in sportswear as if they have just worked out but still have perfect hair and makeup. This is where I think Flat Tummy Tea and Co go into advertising not only their harmful products but an unrealistic lifestyle that goes with it. It sells an expectation from society that women must be thin and beautiful at all times even when working out, they must have their bodies ‘summer ready’, they must look a certain way or take actions such as buying Flat Tummy Tea to help them look like the models in the advertisement. Harrison et al found that ‘when women are exposed to diet-related commercials or images with diet tips next to them then they are less likely to eat and feel bad about eating or their own bodies.’ (Harrison, 507–9). This is exactly what Flat Tummy Tea and Co are doing they are advertising a ‘happy healthy’ lifestyle with their products, playing upon the pressures that society creates for women to look a certain way and uses their dissatisfaction and insecurities to sell their product.

It is also important to analyse the way in which Flat Tummy Tea and Co choose to address their customers within their advertisements. Most of the time they seem very friendly and even over-familiar with the customer. ‘The brand promises to bring its “babes”, ‘what they affectionately call their fans and followers’ (Borges, par.2) an empowering journey of sisterhood. On their site within their mission statement Flat Tummy Tea and Co claim to ‘be that annoying best friend that isn’t going to let you give up.’ And that they ‘got your back’ (Flat Tummy Tea and Co, par.7–8). All this type of language is repeated within their advertising on their social media and their paid Instagram influencer's adverts. The whole ‘we are in this together attitude’ appears to play on the consumer's loneliness within their insecurity about their bodies. Flat Tummy Tea wants to present themselves as a trustworthy company that many women trust with their bodies (hence the mass employment of Instagram influencers to advertise) and using this type of friendly ‘girly’ language help with this. It makes the consumer feel as if they are in a supportive group of women in similar situations and that if that perfect Instagram model needs help with their diet and Flat Tummy Tea can sort it then it could work for them too. Flat Tummy Tea becomes like a supportive friend to the insecure women it targets within its adverts. Realistically a lot of these Instagram stars such as Kim Kardashian who advertised the product have strict diet and exercise regimes as well as cosmetic work that make them look the way they do setting up a false pretense for the customers of this product. Again, this is another example of Flat Tummy Tea advertising a certain type of ‘we are all in this together’ lifestyle to play on the insecurity of being alone within women’s body image issues.

Significantly Flat Tummy Tea does not just advertise on social media. They have been known to advertise on billboards and magazines such as Vogue too. In July 2018, the company had a controversial advertisement in Times Square (See fig.1) which stated ‘Got Cravings?… Girl, Tell Them To #SuckIt’ with a picture of a woman eating one of the company’s appetite-suppressing lollipops (@svershbow). This massive pink billboard towered over passers-by in Time Square directly telling women that their cravings are unnatural and that they have a solution for it. Cravings, of course, are very natural for everyone to experience but this billboard somehow shames women into thinking they must be doing more to prevent these so they can be as happy as the woman in the advertisement. Again the company is playing into the insecurities of modern-day women as they are told by society that their cravings and weight gain are negative and that they should actively be looking for solutions to be better, solutions that this company seems to be offering.

Looking further into this advertisement, you can see it is on a bright pink background, the smiling woman with the lollipops takes center stage. Their logo is then printed on either side of the caption. The bright pink here is highlighting that this advertisement is targeting women, it is a stereotypically girly colour and they want to target a stereotypically girly audience who are vulnerable to advertisements about the way they look. Bold simple white writing is either side of the image sending a simple message that is easy for an audience just walking by to understand. The phrasing is punchy and memorable with the use of the hashtag. Significantly the use of the hashtag connects a potential customer to the online advertisements this company heavily puts out. Informal, and friendly language is used to address customers calling them ‘Girl’ and ‘Babe’ again talking to them more like friends than customers giving the person a feeling of ease and comfort surrounding the brand. Finally, you have the massive image of a model taking center stage within this advertisement. Interestingly it does not show the models body which is seen in a lot of their social media advertising but just the face. The face of the woman playfully looks off to the side with a happy smile as she is seen with a lollipop in her mouth. This again highlights the type of lifestyle you can be living if you are able to ‘beat these cravings’, you will be happy and carefree just like the woman using the product of the billboard. Furthermore, it isn’t always necessary for Flat Tummy Tea to include a picture of the model’s body on this advertisement because women who are potentially interested in this product already know what the ‘perfect, ideal’ body for a woman looks like because of their use of social media. This is how Flat Tummy Tea play on the insecurities of women who are already exposed to diet culture and negative social media influence. With their advertisements, they perpetuate and enforce the idea of a perfect female lifestyle and body using their language and the already implied social pressures that women face.

Interestingly there has been a subvertisment made in retaliation to Flat Tummy Tea and Co’s billboard in Times Square. Subvertisments ‘mimic the look and feel of the target ad, prompting the classic double-take as viewers realize what they’re seeing is in fact the very opposite of what they expected’ (Lasn, 131). This is exactly what these subvertisments for Flat Tummy Tea do (see fig. 1), the billboard colours, font and layout is near to identical to the real one but there are subtle changes which affects the overall message. One of the most significant differences of this subvertisment compared to the original is that it shows two women eating and looking happy about it, unlike the first one which showed the model holding the appetite suppressant lollipops this image highlights a healthy more normal way to ‘deal’ with cravings. The subvertisment also chooses to use the same language that the original advert utilises calling the onlookers ‘babes’ and ‘girl’. However, within a different more sinister context it states ’60 million babes have eating disorders and counting… you>dieting’. The aim of the subvertisment here is to exhibit shocking statistics about the damage these dieting products and their adverts can have to women’s health. The subvertisment still uses the original advertisements hashtag but turns it around on the company stating ‘#SuckItFlatTummy’ showing a defiant stand against the company and their advertisements. The subvertisment here has been used to highlight how damaging not only the products that Flat Tummy Tea sell are but how dangerous it is for them to advertise to vulnerable women. As previously stated, there is already a great amount of pressure upon women to look a certain way in society, and these advertisements from Flat Tummy Tea prey on that. These subvertisments are not only a way to poke fun at the brand and their dangerous advertising but to highlight a healthier normal alternative to the diet culture Flat Tummy Tea promotes.

In conclusion Flat Tummy Tea and Co use a controversial advertisement to advertise their controversial product to a vulnerable market. They market their dieting drinks and lollipops to an already insecure female audience and try to sell them a quick way out of their body-dissatisfaction. They use Instagram models posed and smiling to convey a lifestyle that you could have if you looked a certain way. Flat Tummy Tea famously ‘does not provide any scientific evidence to support the claims’ of weight loss (Frey, 21) highlighting how there is a vicious cycle in which the customer always feel dissatisfied within their body image so is always wanting to buy more product. Their advertisement uses a certain type of language referring to potential customers as ‘babes’ building up a rapport and friendliness to the company; when talked to like a friend customers are more likely to trust in the results of the product. All in all, the advertisements of Flat Tummy Tea takes advantage of the societal pressure that women face regarding their body image. They use seemingly friendly phrasing and pictures of ideal lifestyles to sell their harmful product to those most affected by diet culture.

Figure 1

Source :

@svershbow, “Hey Twitter, Let’s use our power for good by guilting @FlatTummyCo into taking down their Times Square billboard advertising appetite suppressants. Love, A former-anorexic teenage girl” 18/07/18, 11:39 PM, https://twitter.com/svershbow/status/1016451724297605120 , date accessed 20/05/20

Figure 2

Source:

Baker, Jess. ‘SUCK IT FLAT TUMMY: WHY MARKETING EATING DISORDERS TO “BABES” IS HARMFUL AF’, The Militant Baker, Aug 2018, http://www.themilitantbaker.com/2018/08/suck-it-flat-tummy-why-marketing-eating.html , accessed 10/05/20

Bibliography

@hollybortolazzo, Holly Bortolozzo, “Sticking with my @flattummyco cleanse program”, Instagram, par.1 https://www.instagram.com/p/B_BXZvIpgZ8/ , date accessed 16/04/20

@vidasupa, Vida Supa, “STILL on track and STILL hitting goals”, Instagram, par.1, https://www.instagram.com/p/B_BYwW_ndOA/, date accessed 16/04/20

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Controversial ads for a controversial product — Flat Tummy Tea: playing on women’s insecurities?

Written by Freya Sumner