A new policy urging advertisers to promote healthy media images has been adopted by the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) and the American Medical Association (AMA). The AMA, the largest association of physicians and medical students in the United States, voted to adopt a new policy to encourage advertising associations to work with public and private sector organizations concerned with child and adolescent health to develop guidelines for advertisements, especially those appearing in teen-oriented publications, that would discourage the altering of photographs in a manner that could promote unrealistic expectations of appropriate body image.

“Through the Girl Scouts’ Healthy MEdia: Commission for Positive Images of Women and Girls, we are working with the advertising industry and other media leaders to promote images on screen and in print that we want our girls to emulate in real life,” says GSUSA Chief Executive Officer Kathy Cloninger. “We applaud the AMA for taking a strong position on this issue and join them in encouraging advertisers to use healthy, realistic images when marketing to young people.”

An initiative called Healthy MEdia has been launched by GSUSA, the National Association of Broadcasters, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and The Creative Coalition. Commission Members include media industry leaders, subject matter experts, youth representatives and members of the creative community.

For more information visit GirlScouts.org/HealthyMedia.