A Diesel clothing ad, featuring model Katie Price wearing a bikini and holding a handbag in front of her chest has been ripped down by the ad watchdog for objectifying and sexualising women.
The “Diesel Spring Summer 2025” paid-for ad, seen on The Guardian news website of all places, triggered 13 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority.
Some complainants, who believed the ad objectified and sexualised women, challenged whether it was offensive, harmful and irresponsible; others, who believed the model appeared to be unhealthily thin, challenged whether the ad was irresponsible.
In its defence, Diesel said the ad was part of a brand campaign called “The Houseguests”, which was designed to challenge stereotypes and support diversity and inclusion in the fashion industry, by reflecting a wide range of body types.
The firm said it regretted that this context was not clear to the complainants. It believed the ad was compliant with the CAP Code, but nevertheless confirmed it had removed the ad from the Guardian website,
Diesel added that the ad had been published in over 100 countries worldwide and that it had not been notified of any other complaints.
The firm insisted that Price, who is 46 years-old, had a body type that was not usually included in high fashion campaigns (the average age for editorial models being 16–23). It believed the image was a celebration of Price’s sexuality and empowerment and was not objectifying, degrading or sexualising.
On the second point, Diesel said although Price was slender, she had “excellent” muscle tone and was not unhealthily underweight. It said that, in the ad Price’s head was in proportion with her body, her collar bones were not overly pronounced and her limbs, although slender, were clearly covered with healthy muscle and were proportional to her size. It believed the image was not therefore irresponsible.
In relation to both points, The Guardian said the ad had been served programmatically and automatically via the open digital advertising marketplace. It had received a complaint directly about the ad on April 4 and blocked it from appearing again because it did not consider it complied with their policies.
The publisher had received an earlier complaint, which it now believes related to the ad, but was unable to determine that at the time because the image had not been provided with the complaint. The Guardian had processes in place to prevent potentially harmful ads from being published. These were not, however, triggered as the ad was given a categorisation that was permitted by The Guardian’s processes.
In its ruling, published today, the ASA did acknowledge Diesel’s comments regarding the wider advertising campaign, but considered the ad in isolation, as it was likely that at least some people seeing the ad would not have seen any of the other ads or videos that were part of the campaign.
While the regulator acknowledged that Price was shown in a confident and self-assured pose and in control, it considered that because of the positioning of the handbag, which had the effect of emphasising and drawing attention to her breasts, the ad sexualised her in a way that objectified her. It therefore considered the ad was likely to cause serious offence, was irresponsible and breached the Code.
On the second point, the ASA acknowledged that Price was slim but threw out the complaint that she was unhealthily thin.
Even so, the regulator ruled the ad must not appear again in the form complained of and went on to warn Diesel about future activity.
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