Yoplait Pulls Ad Accused of Promoting Eating Disorders

There's healthy, and then there's insensitive, argues the National Eating Disorders Association. General Mills has pulled a Yoplait commercial that NEDA says promotes anorexia and bulimia, reports Huffington Post. The ad depicts a slim woman standing in front of a refrigerator while she justifies eating a slice of raspberry cheesecake with promises of exercise and celery sticks. A skinnier co-worker then chooses a cup of Yoplait Light, and the first woman follows her lead.

The president of NEDA says she learned of the commercial after receiving emails and calls from people with eating disorders. For them, "opening a refrigerator is like walking off a bridge," she says. "And to see this behavior in a commercial tells people with eating disorders, see, it's even on TV. It's OK and normal for my head to go through all these mental exercises." A rep for General Mills says the company meant no harm. "The thought had never occurred to anyone, and no one raised the point. We aren't sure that everyone saw the ad that way, but if anyone did, that was not our intent and is cause for concern. We thought it best to take it down." Check out a slideshow of other campaigns that could be problematic. (More General Mills stories.)