The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a Calvin Klein Out-Of-Home campaign featuring singer FKA Twigs for its “overall sexual overture”.
While a noble endeavour, the ASA has taken its sweet time in banning the ad as it debuted in April last year!
The Calvin Klein advert in question showed FKA Twigs modelling a denim shirt. FKA Twigs’ buttocks and breast were exposed, and her shirt was draped over one shoulder and drawn halfway across her body.
The watchdog said that as the ad “used nudity and centred on FKA Twig’s physical features rather than the clothing” and therefore presented her “as a stereotypical sexual object” it deemed the ad “was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence”.
Calvin Klein said that “the ads were similar to ads they had been publishing in the UK for many years” and the brand was “well known” for being “pioneering and progressive” and “engaged in a range of equity and equality focused partnerships”.
The brand even provided excerpts from interviews that FKA Twigs had given to magazines about the ad campaign as evidence that she felt a sense of empowerment and confidence from having participated in it.
Calvin Klein even went as far as to say that “well-known men” had also featured in the campaign which suggested it was “not focused on sexualising women”.
Read more: “Women love it. Men hate it”: System1 On Jeremy Allen White’s Calvin Klein Spot
BuildHollywood, which owned the relevant poster sites, said it had interpreted the images as beautiful and celebratory of women, and that FKA Twigs was not depicted in an overly sexual manner. It added that, because of a regular change over cycle, the ads were no longer being displayed.
So, in all, the ASA’s tardiness was for naught.
