Ad of the Day: Vitamin Stree produces fitness anthem to tackle body shaming in India
Vitamin Stree (Vitamin Women), a YouTube channel by content studio Supari Studios, has rolled out a This Girl Can-style campaign celebrating all body types to counteract body shaming in Indian culture.
The fitness anthem aims to tackle the issue of body shaming in India
The campaign titled 'Fit is not a body type' features several athletes working out to a quirky background track by Su Real and Tanya Nambiar. The spot focuses on the cultural, artistic and ideological perspectives that are shaping the lives of women in contemporary India.
The Drum spoke with Tara Kapur, head of original content (non-fiction) at Supari Studios to learn more about the campaign.
What inspired you to come up with this music video?
Body image issues are something that almost every single person has suffered from at some point in their lives. Given that Vitamin Stree is a women-centric channel, we wanted to create a piece that tackles the issue of body shaming with a fitness anthem, featuring 46 athletes and fitness enthusiasts who break stereotypes about body types.
Do you think body shaming is more of an Indian problem or exists globally?
Body shaming exists everywhere, especially now that a lot of people post their fitness regimes on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Because it's become so easy to write a message to anyone, trolls have no filters and say whatever they feel like. I've seen some of the messages the women featured in this video have received and it ranges from them being called "too fat", "too skinny", "too muscular" and so on. These aren't things people should have to deal with on a day to day basis, and 'Fit is not a body type' addresses that.
What do you aim to achieve out of this campaign?
The primary objective of this video is first and foremost to create a fitness anthem for anyone who has struggled with body issues and trolls. We also wanted to drive some attention to Vitamin Stree as a whole, and the type of content we create, 'Fit is not a body type', is a video around fitness and body image, but we also create a lot of content pertaining to urban Indian women.
