Adidas’ sports bra ad featuring bare female breasts has been banned in the UK.
The ad image featured women of different skin colours, breast sizes and chest widths.
The UK Advertising Standards Authority concluded that the images may offend a wide audience.
Adidas explained that women have very different breasts, so they made this ad to emphasize the importance of the right sports bra.
Adidas’ advertisement stated, “We believe that women’s breasts of all shapes and sizes deserve support and comfort. There are 43 different models in our new sports bra collection so that everyone can find a model that fits them.”
A company representative stated that Adidas continues to proudly stand behind this message, and the image is still on their site.
One of the ads on Twitter in February featured 62 women’s breasts and the other 64 women’s breasts.
The nipples in the ad were pixelated.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated the advertisement after 24 different complaints, such as containing unnecessary nudity or “reducing women to body parts and turning them into sexual objects”.
Some complainants also pointed out that the images could also be seen by children on Twitter.
Twitter also examined these shares, but did not find it contrary to the rules of the platform.
After examining the complaints, the ASA decided that although the ad campaign was non-sexual and did not objectify women, it contained nudity and therefore could be directed to a specific target audience, out of sight of children.