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Watchdog slaps American Apparel's youthful naked arse

Spandex bodysuit pic 'likely to cause serious offence', ASA rules

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has ordered US clothing outfit American Apparel to pull a snap from its website which featured a prominent pair of youthful buttocks promoting the "Lips Print Cotton Spandex Sleeveless Thong Bodysuit".

A cropped version of the offending image

The watchdog received a single complaint challenging "whether the ad was irresponsible and offensive, because it portrayed a sexualised image of a model who the complainant considered looked under 16 years of age".

The company responded that it "believed the image did not represent an underage model and said the model shown was 20 years old", and that it "believed the image was consistent with standards contained in similar ads".

However, the ASA concluded that the ad "breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 (Social responsibility) and 4.1 (Harm and offence)", and ordered it "must not appear again in its current form".

The ruling elaborated: "We considered the model had a youthful appearance and that some consumers were likely to regard her as being younger than 16 years of age. The model was shown looking back at the camera over her shoulder with her buttocks visible. We considered that readers were likely to interpret the model's expression and pose as being sexual in nature. In conjunction with the youthful appearance of the model, we considered the ad could be seen to sexualise a child. We therefore concluded that the ad was irresponsible and was likely to cause serious offence."

This is not the first time American Apparel has fallen foul of the ASA. In September last year, the manufacturer got slapped for a "School Days" skirt campaign which "featured an image of a girl wearing the skirt, a top and white underwear, bending over to touch the ground, photographed from behind from a low angle".

In 2012, the ASA took similar umbrage to a magazine advert which "pictured a girl sitting on an office chair wearing a jumper, knickers and knee-length socks", who was "posed with her legs up on the chair and her knickers were visible". ®

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