Ad description

A product listing on www.peopletree.co.uk, for the Zandra Rhodes Lipstick Asymmetrical Dress, seen in June 2016, featured an image of a model wearing the dress.

Issue

The complainant, who believed the featured model appeared to be extremely and unhealthily thin, challenged whether the ad was irresponsible.

Response

People Tree Ltd said that all People Tree models wore UK Size 10, EUR Size 38 samples and they looked for healthy models who could wear their clothing without further amendments being made. They did not permanently alter sample clothes to make them smaller and only used clips to do so occasionally.

They said that the model featured in the ad was 5’11” tall and met the fitting criteria during the model casting and exhibited a healthy lifestyle for the duration of the shoot. They stated that the nature of the image appeared to capture the model in a half turn movement with her head leaning forward. They stated that the model was pictured wearing high heels and an asymmetric dress and these objective factors of silhouette prolongation led to the model’s thin appearance.

They stated that they aimed to implement responsible advertising throughout all in-house marketing materials and they had removed the image from their website.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA acknowledged that the model’s stance and the shape of the asymmetric dress, which was fitted at the torso, as well as the light coloured background against which she was standing, emphasised the model’s slim waist. We noted that her arms and legs, though slim, were not out of proportion with the rest of her body, and that could be seen in the smaller images in the ad featuring the back of the dress, where the model’s waist appeared to be less slim than pictured in the main image, where the model was turning towards the camera.

We considered that while the model appeared to be slender in her appearance, she did not appear to be underweight or unhealthily thin. We therefore concluded that the ad was not irresponsible.

We investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rule  1.3 1.3 Marketing communications must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society.  (Responsible advertising), but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

1.3    


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