Adidas has had three sports bra ads banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for displaying bare breasts.
A tweet and two out-of-home (OOH) posters showed, in a grid format, the bare breasts of women of various skin colours, shapes and sizes, promoting the idea that Adidas produces sports bras for everyone.
The pictures were identically cropped to show only the torsos of the participating models. The tweet that features 20 women was captioned: “We believe women’s breasts in all shapes and sizes deserve support and comfort. Which is why our new sports bra range contains 43 styles, so everyone can find the right fit for them.”
The OOH posters, however, featured over 60 women and included a shorter tagline: “The reasons we didn’t make just one new sports bra”. One of the posters obscured the nipples of the women by pixelation.
Some 24 members of the public complained to the ASA, branding the ads’ use of nudity as gratuitous, objectifying and sexualising. A few people also challenged whether the posters were appropriate for display where they could be seen by children.
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Adidas responded by stating that the images in the advertisements were not gratuitous, but rather intended to celebrate different shapes and sizes, highlight diversity and demonstrate why tailored support bras are important.
The ASA added: “They said the images had been cropped to protect the identity of the models and to ensure their safety. All the models shown had volunteered to be in the ad and were supportive of its aims. They did not consider the ad to be sexual; they intended to show breasts simply as a part of a woman’s body.”
The sports brand also claimed that prior to their release, the company had submitted the ads to the Committee of Advertising Practice’s (CAP’s) Copy Advice team to consult on the suitability of the campaign.
While CAP stated that the images were not sexual and did not appear to objectify women, the committee did however highlight the risk attached to the use of nudity in commercial advertising, especially in un-targeted spaces. As a result of this advice, Adidas concluded that it would not place the posters near schools or religious venues.
Nevertheless, the ASA ruled that the depiction of naked breasts was likely to be seen as explicit nudity and therefore violated the CAP Code rules in relation to ‘harm and offence’ and ‘social responsibility’.
“We noted that the breasts were the main focus in the ads, and there was less emphasis on the bras themselves, which were only referred to in the accompanying text,” the ASA said.
“We also considered that the posters were not suitable for use in untargeted media, particularly where they could be seen by children.”
The watchdog also noted that Adidas’ tweet promoting the campaign was not in keeping with its usual content and because it featured explicit nudity it was likely to cause widespread offence in that media.
The ASA concluded: “The ads must not appear again in the forms complained of. We told Adidas UK Ltd to ensure their ads did not cause offence and were targeted responsibly.”
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