Yves Saint Laurent ad banned for featuring ‘unhealthily underweight’ model

[Jazzy]

An Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) ad has been banned for featuring a model with a visible rib cage and knees and thighs of a similar width.

The ad, which appeared in Elle UK magazine, featured a black and white photo of a woman described by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) as ‘unhealthily underweight’.

A reader complained that the ad was irresponsible for using a model who appeared to be too thin.

The ASA said YSL ‘indicated that they did not agree with the complainant’s view that the model was unhealthily thin’ but did not provide a detailed response.

Elle UK told the watchdog it had no comment to make on the complaint.

The ASA said the model’s pose and the lighting drew particular focus to her chest, where her rib cage was visible and appeared prominent, and to her legs, where her thighs and knees appeared a similar width.

It said: ‘We therefore considered that the model appeared unhealthily underweight in the image and concluded that the ad was irresponsible.’

It ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form, adding: ‘We told the advertisers to ensure that the images in their ads were prepared responsibly.’

YSL declined to comment on the ruling.

Do you think the ad should have been banned? Why/Why not?

 

[Smiley]

Fashion industry has been aggressively pushing unhealthy underweightness with their unrealistically small clothing designs for years now, and no one seemed to mind it. It seems that only recently people have started to rebel against such practice, but what's the point? Fashion designers will always find some way, some loophole, to slip through and continue to promote excessive thinness as the only acceptable look, so I don't see what would be the point of banning this ad. It's like Lernaean Hydra. If you cut one head off, two will grow back.