An advert by Italian fashion brand Gucci was banned by the British Advertising Standards Authority, or ASA, for being “irresponsible” since it featured an “unhealthily thin” model.
ASA released a statement on Wednesday noting that a person filed a complaint believing “the featured models appeared unhealthily thin and challenged whether the ad was irresponsible.”
In return, the Italian fashion house said that the advert, which was shown on The Times website “was aimed at an older, sophisticated audience” and argued that models appearing “unhealthily thin” is a “subjective issue.”
Gucci believes that the models had “slim builds, but were not depicted in a way that could be interpreted as unhealthily thin.”
ASA upheld the complaint, noting that “the ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Guccio Gucci S.p.A. to ensure that the images in their ads were prepared responsibly.”
