Clothing firm’s racy ads banned

Watchdog says clothing brand’s campaign featuring partial nudity ‘presented a risk to younger teenagers’ An ad campaign by clothing brand Jack Wills has been banned after complaints that the use of scantily clad models depicting a “hedonistic university lifestyle” was unsuitable for young teenagers. Jack Wills, the clothing chain which brands itself as “the original university outfitters”, ran four full-page ads for its 2011 catalogue called the Spring Term Handbook. The ads featured a variety of pictures of young people cavorting including a girl wearing a short skirt with her knickers visible, a group on a beach in which a boy was embracing a woman wearing a bra, and a topless couple kissing. The Advertising Standards Authority received 19 complaints that the ads were unsuitable for a catalogue targeted at young teenagers. Jack Wills maintained that the brand targeted 18- to 22-year-olds and none of the models used were under that age. The company said it drew inspiration from the “hedonistic university lifestyle” and that the marketing strategy was designed to project a positive, fun and sometimes flirtatious” image which it believed was “an accurate reflection of student life”. An online film advertising the catalogue carried a warning of scenes of a sexual nature but the catalogue, which directed readers to the video, did not. The ASA said that some under-18s could have received, or viewed, the catalogue and that each of the images contained “partial nudity” with the one showing the couple in a mostly nude embrace “beyond what could be described as fun or flirtatious”. “We considered that the catalogue was sufficiently provocative as to present a risk to younger teenagers,” the ASA said. The watchdog banned the ad campaign. •

Posted by on April 6, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.