Banned ad of the week: American Apparel sell pants by showing tits and sweater by showing ass

The ASA calls the above campaign amateurish and we noted that the majority of clothing items featured in the ads were outer garments, and considered that the nature of the women’s poses meant that their breasts and buttocks were the focal points of the images rather than the products. We considered that the nudity was therefore gratuitous.

Yes, it's AA and Dov's favorite tactic isn't it, to sell clothes by not having anyone wear much of it. Pretty classic in fashion ads, really. The ASA calls the campaign style peeping Tom creepy in so many words: "However, we considered that in the particular context of images which featured nudity and sexually provocative poses, there was a voyeuristic and ‘amateurish’ quality to the images which served to heighten the impression that the ads were exploitative of women and inappropriately sexualised young women."

And these ads won't be back: "We told AA not to use similar images which were exploitative of women or that inappropriately sexualized young women in future."