Jack Wills Advert Banned For Being Too Sexy

It seems that Calvin Klein is not the only member of the fashion world to come under heavy fire for highly sexualised advertising. Just a few weeks after Calvin Klein was heavily criticised for its ‘upskirt’ underwear advertisement as part of its Spring campaign, an advert by British fashion brand Jack Wills has been banned by authorities for its inappropriate, sexualised images.

The Advertising Standards Authority banned the Jack Wills campaign after deeming the images and text in question to be too “sexually suggestive” in conjunction with each other, rather than playful or cheeky. The UK advertising watchdog claims that the campaign, which was released as part of the retailer’s Spring catalogue, was too inappropriate for Jack Wills’s young market.

The advertisements in question contained a series of images of young people drinking and partying wearing just their underwear, with the text underneath reading: “Pure and comfortable cottons, or flirty delicate laces, whatever your choice, you can be sure it’s what’s underneath that counts”. The lounge wear section of the catalogue was also reported to contain images of a shirtless man lying in bed with a woman whose bra strap was falling down.

Regarding the controversial content of the adverts, the advertising watchdog took action against the campaign after a parent complained about such images being included in a magazine which clearly targets teenagers. Jack Wills challenged the criticisms, claiming that their target market is aged between 18 and 24, and thus the images merely “reflected the life stages” of their target market rather than being “overly sexual or encouraging under-age sexual activity.” Despite Jack Wills’s comments, the ASA banned the adverts, deeming them to be of easy access to younger teens and containing images which may also appeal directly to younger readers by portraying “a lifestyle to which they might aspire.”