UK ad regulator bans Calvin Klein ad with singer FKA twigs because it showed her as “a stereotypical sexual object”

The U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a Calvin Klein advert featuring singer FKA twigs because it “presented her as a stereotypical sexual object.” 

Complainants, states the ASA, believed the images were overly sexualised, and challenged whether the ads were: 

1. offensive and irresponsible, because they objectified women; and

2. inappropriate for display in an untargeted medium.

There were three Calvin Klein posters: one of FKA twigs, the second and third one featured model and internet celebrity Kendall Jenner. 

The ASA banned only the first advert. FKA twigs, on Instagram, said, “In light of reviewing other campaigns past and current of this nature, I can’t help but feel there are some double standards here.”

These posters were first published in 2023. The ruling, however, comes at a time when ads from luxury brands especially on innerwear are under question for overtly sexualising the people who star in them, and for the lack of a creative idea. 

A recent Calvin Kelin ad starring actor Jeremy Allen White (protagonist of The Bear), has divided viewers after the entirety of the ad showed him moving here and there in white CK boxer shorts.  

Sir John Hegarty, co-founder of the advertising agency BBH, wrote on LinkedIn about the Calvin Klein US ad, “There isn’t one (idea). And that is a shame. If this ad was expressing some kind of truth or insight this would be a true classic."

"Creatives in the fashion industry should re-familiarise themselves with the dictionary definition of an idea: ‘A thought or plan formed by mental effort’. Note: ‘mental effort’”

“Art without truth is just decoration.”

“Final grade: B+”