American Apparel Advertisement Banned For Sexualisation

American Apparel had a not so good week in the making. On Wednesday, the American retailer came under fire when one of its ads was banned by the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority for apparently featuring a model who appears to be under 16 years old with her buttocks visible.

AA defended itself saying that the image in question did not feature an underage model and said the female shown was 20 years old. However the ASA said that it 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.” It ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form.

In an event to circumvent things American Apparel started erasing the private parts of its lingerie models on the website by using airbrushing techniques which was met with harsh criticism.

American Apparel’s advertisements have long been met with criticism. In September, the ASA banned an ad for AA's “back to school” range for “inappropriately sexualising” girls. Under the management of new CEO Paula Schneider the company has been trying to distance itself from ousted founder Dov Charney's controversial vision for the company, which mostly saw ads featuring young women in sexually charged poses. However, in light of the recent developments it would appear that she got off to a bad start and still has a long way to go to remake the brand.