Teen clothing brand Supre has come under fire from the Australian Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) for ads depicting a topless teenager.
The last of the ads, part of an in-store poster and bus campaign, were pulled last week after a series of complaints to the ASB claiming that the label was sexualising young people via images which came “dangerously close to soft porn”.
The ads, which feature a young woman wearing Supre jeggings (jean/leggings cross) with only her hair covering her breasts, were found to be in breach of the ASB Code of Ethics, despite argument from the label stating that although it is “a sexy image”, it did not breach any form of discrimination or vilification towards women.
Supre also attempted to quash concerns that the ad was aimed at an audience under 18, by stating that the campaign was actually “targeted at 18-35-year-old women with a focus on jeggings”. However, this claim was strongly rejected by the ASB which noted that the Supre brand is popular with teenage and pre-teen girls, hence the ad would be attractive to this age group.
Other complaints against the supre ads read: “With only hair over her breasts and not completely covering them this picture immediately invokes the idea of pornography. I do not know if the woman is a real model or computer image but she looks about 15 years old – hence child pornography. I do not believe that such nudity should be forced upon the community.”
Another included comments such as: “I object to this advertisement portraying the girl in a gratuitously sexual fashion by leaving her topless. Supre is a store which markets to young teens and women... this advertisement is on the border of soft porn.”
A similarly sexy television commercial by the brand, which features a young girl thrusting her rear at the camera and rolling her tongue over her teeth, is now also under investigation by the ASB.
In considering the Supre matter, the ASB board also noted that this image has some similarities to a number of recent fashion advertisements which depict topless women in advertisements for jeans. In particular the board noted Bardot 0069/11. However, in that case, the board considered that “while some members of the community may find this advertisement to be inappropriate, the images of model posing wearing the product was relevant to the product”.