The image is from the Swedish retailer H & M's website. Recently the company undertook an outdoor campaign to advertise its swimwear.
The advertisements attracted a variety of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), including claims that the campaign was degrading to women and that it was unsuitable to be seen by children.
This is not the first time this year H& M's advertising images have been the subject of complaints. It is the third time the ASA has investigated and the third time they have been cleared.
Who are the complainers? The public should be told the sources of such complaints because nowadays, in this ridiculously political correct society in which we live, it seems all to easy for individuals - or companies - to tag any image which 'offends' them as degrading and unsuitable for children.
Only yesterday, because of a handful of complaints, Edinburgh airport's bosses placed a white vinyl cover over the 'offending' parts of an advertisement which featured Picasso's Nude Woman in a Red Armchair and asked National Galleries of Scotland to remove the poster and replace it with something less controversial. The advert was intended to promote the National Galleries of Scotland's new exhibition 'Picasso and Modern British Art' which opened on 4 August.
Having ignored the painful and simple lessons of the Martha Payne affair - banning something is often the fastest route to embarrassment - the airport bosses instructed the white vinyl was removed and an apology given to NGS with the admission that the airport's administration had reacted too hastily to the few complaints.
There is positive result from such complaints though - the advertisers gain a mass of free publicity. And rightly so.
Posts
