U.K. fitness brand Protein World has come out with billboards in the London Underground featuring a skinny woman in a swimsuit, alongside the provocative tagline, “Are you beach body ready?”

Of course, the campaign has been attacked on the grounds that it implied that thinness was standard for beauty.  There were some inventive (and outraged) responses by consumers to the campaign, including one by a satirist who came out with a fake Dove ad to counter the Protein World ad.

What was surprising was that Protein World seemed unrepentant and countered its critics with its own unapologetic tweets.

The backlash seems to have worked – apparently Protein World made around £1 million (approx. Rs.10 crores) within four days of the break of the campaign.

You can read about the Protein World campaign in this article in Adweek and this one in Business Insider.

Visual courtesy: www.businessinsider.com