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1. Introduction
A size-zero body (UK size 4) is considered desirable and ideal in the modern world (Grabe et al., 2008). The pursuit of the size-zero body has filtered down through society to affect ordinary women living everyday lives and has become a global social issue (Bian and Foxall, 2013), for which the public and policymakers believe the media should be held accountable (Sweney, 2007). There is growing empirical support for the proposition that the ubiquitous portrayals of female size-zero models (SM) in the media have a negative impact on how adolescent girls and adult women evaluate themselves and, thus, contribute to near-universal body dissatisfaction among young women (Grabe et al., 2008; Field et al., 2001; Gordon, 2000; Thompson and Heinberg, 1999). Consequently, media and retailers promoting the use of SM are under the spotlight for criticism. For example, recently, J Crew got consumer backlash for using triple zero models (Daily Mail, 2014). Some marketing practitioners have recognized the need for change. In the advertising industry, we have recently seen a movement towards the use of average-sized models (AM), who represent the mean of body size (that is norm and representative of most consumers) of a certain age group. For example, Unilever has banned the use of SM in any of its advertising campaigns, and started using AM in many advertisements (Sweney, 2007). Nevertheless, the majority of marketing practitioners are still very cautious and slow in replacing SM with AM due to being unsure about how well consumers may respond (Bian and Foxall, 2013; Halliwell and Dittmar, 2004). A better understanding of the consequences of the use of AM versus SM is essential for more effective public policy initiatives and better targeted marketing campaigns.
The extant literature gives much attention to the impact on women resulting from using SM as idealized advertising images (Field et al., 2001; Richins, 1991). Some research effort has also been devoted to investigation of consumers’ responses to large-sized female models (USA size 16 and above) and has identified a few circumstances where large-sized models can be viewed positively (Peck and Loken, 2004; Loken and Peck, 2005; Martin et al., 2007). An increasing number of studies (Diedrichs and Lee, 2011; Dittmar and Howard, 2004; Halliwell and...