Love Island helps to battle obesity, ITV chief claims
‘Aspirational’ series shows good-looking contestants having to exercise hard for their figures, says boss
FOR its critics, it promotes dangerous body standards to an impressionable audience. For fans, it celebrates the simple pleasure of beautiful people frolicking by a sunny pool.
For ITV, Love Island may serve something of a higher purpose, as a controller suggested the “aspirational” show could in fact help combat the looming obesity crisis.
Paul Mortimer, the ITV controller of digital channels, said programme-makers “make no excuses” about having a cast of good-looking contestants for the show, saying they tried to show them working hard for their figures.
“There’s also another conversation going on about childhood obesity,” he said. “If you want to look like the guys on Love Island you have to work out.”
The show was heavily criticised by some, who feared it promoted unrealistic body images for men and women, and condemned the broadcast of adverts for cosmetic surgery in its breaks.
It also faced a backlash this year over a lack of diversity among its cast.
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Mr Mortimer said the programme deliberately showed the contestants exercising to get the bodies they have.
“I think on the body image thing, we cast very attractive people, it’s a sexy show,” he said. “It is entertainment on ITV2 and in the same way Hollywood casts a certain type to get bums on seats in theatres …
“We cast sexy people, we’re a sexy channel. Those people, by the way, they work quite hard. There’s a gym, we show people working out … We make no excuses that people more beautiful than us are entitled to go into a villa for eight weeks and find love.”
Addressing the broader topic of diversity on screen, Kevin Lygo, the ITV head of television, said: “This has been endless, and I think everybody has got better at it, and I think we’re pretty good. When we do it at our best, you don’t even notice. Certainly The X Factor and The Voice and things, they are incredibly diverse and nobody talks about them being an example of great diversity, because it’s so seamless and natural.
“Some of our dramas too – there’s the whole one set in Sri Lanka, The Good Karma Hospital. But I think you can never take your foot off the gas. “Behind the camera it’s a different story, but there are loads of initiatives going on. It will be a slow process, and you don’t want to be putting somebody on screen who hasn’t done much before, you don’t want to rush them and make a bad job of it.”
Liam Preston, head of the Be Real campaign to promote body confidence, said in June that Love Island continued to glorify the male and female body in a way that only promoted one stereotypical look. Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, previously raised concerns that cosmetic surgery adverts were broadcast in Love Island breaks. “You’ve got explicit ads being aimed at young women around breast cosmetic surgery,” he said. “That is all playing into a growing set of pressures around body image.”