Culture

Victoria Beckham May Sue Restaurant Over Defamatory Ad

Victoria Beckham Shutterstock
Lily Rose|

Fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, 43, is considering suing a fish and chips shop in northeastern England for defamation after the release of an offensive advertisement.

Talk about a sudden loss of appetite — the tasteless ad featured a cartoon image of an emaciated Beckham and compared her rail-thin frame to Sidhu Golden Fish and Chips' thin crust pizza.

"Our new Victoria Beckham Thin Crust only 2mm Thin!!" reads the ad that appears on the back of the restaurant's delivery van, with an arrow pointing to a cartoon of a scantily clad Beckham saying "This is not thin!" and another arrow to a pizza saying, "This is thin!"

Beckham has previously been open about suffering from disordered eating and a preoccupation with her weight.

"It is highly inappropriate to trivialize such a disorder, and defamatory to be so thoughtless with a person's reputation in this way, therefore we are seeking legal advice," a spokesperson for Beckham told Fox News.

Sidhu Golden Fish and Chips' manager, Soni Sidhu, 32, says that the controversial ad has been on the van for over three years and claims that it has never been an issue before.

"There hasn't been one negative email or one negative kind of response from anybody at all," Sidhu revealed to the Daily Mail. "It's not intended to kind of offend anybody."

Clearly, the ad that mocks Beckham's body and can be seen as trivializing eating disorders is offensive to some. Marg Oaten of the anorexia charity Seed has publicly spoken out against the restaurant, saying that the ad is a trigger for those suffering from an eating disorder and those in recovery from one.

"This is a step in the wrong direction," Oaten told the Daily Mail. "The people responsible for this should hang their heads in shame."

 

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