Pretty Young Thing hit for 'offensive young thing' image

Online fashion firm Pretty Little Thing has been given a stiff dressing down by the ad watchdog over an “irresponsible and offensive” product listing for a pair of jeans, despite the company’s insistence that the images were “inclusive, empowering and tasteful”.

The first image showed a topless model covering her breasts with her hands while with the front of her jeans were unzipped showing the top of her underwear.

A second photo on the listing showed an image of the same woman wearing the jeans zipped up, but the photo had cut off her head and shoulders. She wore nothing on her top and her right hand was placed across her chest to cover her breasts.

But one customer, who believed the ad sexually objectified women, challenged the Advertising Standards Authority to rule whether it was offensive and irresponsible.

In response, Pretty Little Thing claimed that it strived to use “inclusive, body positive imagery and communication”, insisting it took body positivity and freedom of expression very seriously and aimed to empower customers to increase their self-esteem.

It went on to say that ads for women’s jeans had historically included images of models with nothing on their top and they had been widely accepted as tasteful and inoffensive.

The firm said that its models and the way it shot its clothing embraced the diversity of women in society and its customer base, while also supporting empowerment and freedom of expression.

Therefore, it considered that the images in the product listing conformed with this approach and in doing so, prevailing standards, rather than objectifying women.

Finally, the firm said while it did not believe the image objectified women it appreciated the importance of the issue raised and therefore had agreed to remove the images from the website.

Of course, with that the ASA’s ruling is virtually irrelevant, although it did not let the matter rest there, criticising the topless nature of the photographs as irrelevant to the product being advertised” and that it had caused customers to “focus on the woman’s breasts”.

The watchdog added: “We considered that the ad was likely to have the effect of objectifying the woman by using her physical features to draw attention to the jeans in a way that was not pertinent to the product.”

Concluding the images objectified the woman and were therefore irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence, the ASA went on to warn Pretty Little Things about its future conduct.