Ad description
A paid for ad on The Guardian app, for a jewellery company, seen on 20 July 2022, that featured an image of a model from the chest up wearing a vest style top and three necklaces. The model was shown leaning forward with her chin resting on her hand.
Issue
The complainant, who believed the featured model appeared unhealthily thin, challenged whether the ad was irresponsible.
Response
Jessica McCormack Ltd said the model featured was well-known and had appeared in advertising for other brands. They said they did not consider using a naturally thin model in advertising to be socially irresponsible. They had positioned the model leaning forward so that the advertised necklaces would hang slightly away from her body and would photograph better. They confirmed that they had removed the ad when they were notified of a concern about it.
Guardian News and Media said the ad was served digitally and programmatically and that it was the advertiser’s responsibility to ensure that ads were appropriately targeted and complied with the Codes. They said they had not received complaints directly about the ad.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that the model’s arms appeared to be very slender and that her clavicles and upper ribs were visible and seemed to protrude, suggesting that she was underweight. The model was seen leaning forward and we acknowledged that the protrusion of her clavicles and ribs was emphasised by her posture. However, because the image gave the impression that the model was unhealthily thin, we concluded that the ad was irresponsible.
The ad breached 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).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Jessica McCormack Ltd to ensure that the images in their ads were prepared responsibly and did not portray models as being unhealthily thin.
