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By Adam Bell

November 18, 2006 12:00

The plastic surgery advertising is broadcast on the internal video channel at Fitness First Lifestyle network watched by gym members as they use exercise machines.

The chain, with 66 gyms in Australia, broadcasts advertisements on the channel every 15 minutes in-between music clips.

In Sydney, ads promoting private plastic surgery clinics have been screening in gyms at Chatswood, Mosman, Bondi Junction and in the city.

Since they began almost six months ago, Fitness First has fielded a wave of complaints from female members.

Fitness First member Emma Innes, of Mosman, said the ads sent the wrong message to women who are worried about their body image.

"I go to the gym to exercise and to stay fit and healthy,'' she said.

"But some women feel under pressure to have the perfect body and these ads suggest that to have a perfect body you need to have breast implants.

"I think that they have a responsibility to promote health and well-being in a more positive way than that.''

Psychologist Jennifer Garth, a body-image specialist, said people should be wary of advertising that targets their insecurity.

"Plastic surgeons don't advertise on television so they are getting around that by targeting a specific group who are right into body image,'' she said.

Nikki Goldstein is the author of Girlforce, and an expert on self-esteem issues in women.

"I think this is advertising by stealth - it is beating women up when they are most vulnerable,'' she said.

"They are in their gym gear, looking at other women's bodies and then comparing themselves.

"I feel uncomfortable about that form of advertising.''

Plastic surgeon Howard De Torres, who specialises in rhinoplasty and breast enlargement, said his ads in eastern suburbs gyms were subtle.

"We're just putting our name in the marketplace. It is no worse than putting it in a magazine or the telephone book,'' Dr De Torres said.

"These ads are very low key and they don't go through any particular procedure - they just portray me as a very capable person.

"We are not aiming to belittle anybody, we just know that people who do think about it (breast implants) go to gyms and that is where they see the name.''

Fitness First told The Sunday Telegraph it would stop broadcasting the advertisements after the existing contracts play out over the next two months.

"People were asking us, 'Take them off because we aren't enjoying them and it's not the environment we want to see that type of stuff,''' said Michael Ryan of Active Media Group, the gym chain's advertising arm.