The UK advertising watchdog has banned an advert from high street retailer Next for featuring an “unhealthily thin” model in digitally altered clothing.
The advertisement, which ran on its website, featured a model marketing Next’s “power stretch denim leggings”.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated the ad after receiving a complaint that the model appeared “unhealthily thin” and said that Next’s marketing was irresponsible.
Next said that its aim was to market the product in a way that was “authentic and responsible” and that it used models “ranging from slim to plus size”.
The retailer argued in its submission to the ASA that the ad acknowledged that the model was slim, but that she had a “healthy and toned physique that aligned with the nature of their product”.
The company argued the model’s proportions were “balanced”, particularly considering she was quite tall at 1.79 metres (5ft 9in), and that it had not digitally re-touched her appearance.
However, Next admitted it had digitally altered the image of the leggings to make them look longer to “maintain focus on the product while avoiding any exaggeration of her body shape”.
In its investigation, the ASA said the model’s face did not appear to be “gaunt” and that while her arms were slim they did not “display any protruding bones”.
The ASA said the shot had been set up at a low angle that “accentuated the models already tall physique [and] further emphasised the slimness of the model’s legs”.
In other images in the same product listing the model did not appear unhealthily thin, but in the ad investigated by the ASA the different angle used “had a visible impact in the appearance of the model’s body”.
“Because the pose, camera angle and styling in the ad investigated strongly emphasised the slimness of the model’s legs, we considered that the ad gave the impression that the model was unhealthily thin,” the ASA ruled.
“We concluded that the ad was irresponsible. The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Next to ensure that the images in their ads were prepared responsibly and did not portray models as being unhealthily thin.”
The ASA has a long history of cracking down on the way brands portray models in their advertising.
In 2016, the watchdog banned a Gucci ad featuring an “unhealthily thin” model with a “sombre facial expression and dark makeup, particularly around her eyes, [which] made her face look gaunt”.
Yves Saint Laurent fell foul of UK ad rules in 2015 for using a model with a “visible rib cage” with “thighs and knees [that] appeared a similar width”.
Both Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington have featured in ad campaigns which have been banned, with L’Oréal forced to pull marketing for Lancôme and Maybelline in 2011 because they were overly airbrushed and digitally manipulated.
Article by:Source: Mark Sweney
