A Calvin Klein ad featuring singer-songwriter FKA Twigs has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for ‘objectifying women’.
Released in April 2023, the FKA Twigs advert was also under fire for being ‘inappropriately placed in an untargeted medium’.
It formed part of a series of OOH creatives which also featured US model Kendall Jenner, although her posters – which were also complained about – managed to avoid censure.
The offending image depicts a black-and-white image of FKA Twigs draped in a Calvin Klein shirt wrapped across the left side of her body, partially revealing her right breast and right buttock. The copy read: Calvins or nothing.
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The other two posters flagged up by complainants featured Kendall Jenner variously in underwear and naked from the waist up wearing nothing but a pair of Calvin Klein jeans, with her arms crossed over her chest.
Responding to the ASA’s decision, the iconic fashion brand said that the ads were ‘similar’ to the kind of content that they have released in the UK for many years and that all the images were approved by the models before publication.
This controversy comes as another Calvin Klein ad – featuring ‘The Bear’s’ Jeremy Allen – is enjoying considerable success, despite the fact that Allen is shown wearing nothing but a rather small pair of white boxers.
