º£½ÇÊÓÆµ

Oops.

Our website is temporarily unavailable in your location.

We are working hard to get it back online.

PRIVACY
Retail & Consumer

Boohoo advert banned after complaint about objectifying women

The product listing for a T-shirt was shown on Boohoo's website in November

Boohoo is headquartered in Manchester(Image: PA)

An advert for fast fashion giant Boohoo has been banned for being likely to cause serious or widespread offence or harm by objectifying women.

The product listing for a T-shirt on Manchester-headquartered Boohoo's website in November showed a model wearing the top with only thong-style bikini bottoms and trainers.

Images included a rear view that showed her kneeling, another showed her sitting on the ground with her legs apart and a third was an upper-body shot that showed the model lifting the T-shirt as if to remove it and exposing the skin on her stomach and side, the PA news agency reported.

READ MORE: Matt Hancock broke law over hiring of former TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding, High Court rules

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received a complaint that the images objectified and sexualised women, and the ad was offensive, harmful and irresponsible.

In response, Boohoo said the images were part of its swimwear category and explained the model was wearing the T-shirt with a bikini.

The retailer said it understands the importance of the issues raised and had removed the images from its website.

The ASA understood that although it had been presented as part of the swimwear category, the advertised product was an oversized T-shirt and the product listing appeared as a result of searches for T-shirts or tops.