Osmo Fitness is “the most exclusive and best gymnasium in Sri Lanka,” operating some health and fitness facilities in Colombo. Earlier this year, they tried to get in on that sweet New Year’s Resolution cash and attempted to recruit new customers with some advertising, including a billboard. This billboard:
https://twitter.com/aruni_t/status/953903606167515137
Oh my, but that is problematic. It’s bluntly and aggressive sexist and body-shaming, what with comparing non-body standard-meeting women to large, round, rusty barrels.
A lot of people were offended, including Harsha de Silva, the Deputy Minister of National Policies and Affairs in Sri Lanka, and also an organizer in Kotte, a major population and administrative area inside of the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. An authority himself, representing many women in Sri Lanka, he asked other authorities to just take the gross billboard down, ASAP.
I asked the Colombo MC Commissioner to remove this unapproved offensive hoarding. I would not tolerate this in Kotte. #SriLanka pic.twitter.com/m1gUBEaItJ
— Harsha de Silva (@HarshadeSilvaMP) January 18, 2018
So, the Colombo Municipal Council started an official inquiry regarding the billboard, and if it’s okay that one with such an offensive building was erected.
The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) has launched an inquiry into the erecting of a hoarding which apparently sends a message offensive to women.The hoarding, erected by a fitness company, shows a picture of a barrel and says ‘This is no shape for a woman’https://t.co/KT7wLiJHDF pic.twitter.com/q7fgS5zTmk
— Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya🖋️ (@sanjeewadara) January 18, 2018
Guess what? It worked.