An ad campaign for an Adidas sports bra featuring bare breasts has been banned in the U.K. by the Advertising Standards Authority.
The promotional material — which included a tweet and two posters, featured a grid of cropped photographs showing the chests of several women of different skin colors, shapes, and sizes. The ad was first released in February.
“We believe women’s breasts in all shapes and sizes deserve support and comfort,” read the caption of a tweet featuring the naked breasts of 20 women. “Which is why our new sports bra range contains 43 styles, so everyone can find the right fit for them,” the tweet added, followed by the hashtag #SupportIsEverything.
A poster also used in the campaign showed the same cropped images of the bare breasts of 62 women stating, “The reasons we didn’t make just one new sports bra.” One other poster showed the same text and the images of 64 women, but with their nipples pixelated.
ASA, the country’s media watchdog, said that it received a total of 24 complaints. Some people thought that the ads objectified women by reducing them to body parts, while others felt that the nudity was gratuitous.
Some people felt that the images could be “harmful and offensive.”
The sportswear giant said that the ads were not gratuitous and were intended to reflect and celebrate diversity while stressing the importance of tailored supported bras.
The company also said that the images were cropped to protect the identity of the models, who had all volunteered to be photographed, and were supportive of the ad’s intention.
ASA officials opened an investigation and issued a response.
While they didn’t think that the way the women were portrayed objectified them, “we considered that the depiction of naked breasts was likely to be seen as explicit nudity.”
They also felt that the breasts were the “main focus” in all three ads, “and there was less emphasis on the bras themselves, which were only referred to in the accompanying text.”
And since the ads contained explicit nudity, “we considered that they required careful targeting to avoid causing offense to those who viewed them,” officials said.
“We, therefore, concluded that the ads breached the code,” the agency added.
