Pinterest Says Banning Ads Related To Weight Loss Greatly Impacted User Behavior

Pinterest is sharing some pretty useful insights on how small changes in policies can really affect an app’s online user behavior.

In 2021, Pinterest turned heads when it chose to eliminate all sorts of ads related to weight loss on its platform. And this was done as a means to promote body positivity. Hence, all ads that had weight loss terms and their related graphics saw a ban and if you come to think of it, the change was mighty in the world of social media.

But what so many people wanted to know is whether or not the change really had any impact on users or not. And to many people’s surprise, the answer is yes!

New data from the app claims that the change managed to have a great impact as searches related to the theme of weight loss fell by nearly 20%. At the same time, the app claims that searches related to healthy lifestyles and meaningful meal planning saw a rapid increase of nearly 65%. Let’s not forget about the mention of healthy food motivation increasing by 13%.

Pinterest recently released a public statement in regards to its findings, adding how it hoped the change would manage to bring fruitful results into the lives of so many people. And we feel it has managed to achieve just that and more.

The platform added how they feel confident that so many of its users are now feeling more confident in their own skin, no matter what their body shape or size may be. Similarly, they feel there has been a hugely positive response in terms of users displaying positive responses to such changes.

And as a whole, that just goes to show how little tweaks in policies can really impact user behavior in the digital world.

Yes, we know what you’re thinking. There are other factors that need to be taken into consideration like overall usage of the app, which did show a decline in users when compared to last year.

But the platform says that despite keeping these factors in mind, the change is noteworthy.

Some other interesting findings that were unveiled by Pinterest recently included how searches related to changing mindsets increased by nearly 50%. Similarly, there were a greater number of searches related to positive affirmations, which saw a 5% increase.

So many more users were searching for body positivity quotes on the app which also increased by nearly 3 times from before. Meanwhile, around 36% of users were searching for quotes about body acceptance, again a striking increase from before.

Lastly, Pinterest says that searches for curvy bodies had similarly experienced a rise by nearly 5 times.

Keeping all of these findings in mind, you can’t help but accept how much of a positive difference the app’s ban related to weight loss content has made in such a short span of time. It’s almost as if there are more chances for users to boost engagement and interact more on the app now than before.

So this means that users aren’t a fan of seeing ads that constantly shame them or remind them that their body type isn’t good enough to fit society’s standards of ideal. And that is what paved the way for a positive environment.

All in all, we definitely think the experiment by Pinterest paid back big time. In a world where social media is full of photoshopped and airbrushed pictures, it’s nice to see what people really think about natural and healthy beauty and lifestyles.

Remember that one research that proved how 32% of young girls hated their bodies after viewing others on the Instagram app. Hence, clearly social media does have the tendency to play with your mind and that’s why measures like these are significant.


Read next: Pinterest Elevates Its Shopping Game By Rolling Out New Merchant Features Including Product Tagging And APIs
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