The watchdog that banned an FKA twigs Calvin Klein ad in the UK has revised its original ruling.
In January, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned an ad featuring twigs wearing only a denim shirt, saying it presented her as a "stereotypical sexual object." The move was heavily criticized by the public and the musician herself, who wrote at the time, "I see a beautiful strong woman of colour whose incredible body has overcome more pain than you can imagine."
Now, the ASA has responded, and while the report has been republished, the ban still stands. "We’re not deaf to the commentary that surrounds our decision making," a statement on its website reads. "We’re genuinely interested in hearing what people think and have to say. And we’re not afraid to challenge our own thinking and change our decisions if we think we’ve got it wrong."
While the ASA says it still thinks the ad is "overtly sexual," the association now believes twigs was "confident and in control." "We have, however, maintained our decision that the overtly sexual image of FKA Twigs was not suitable for display in an untargeted medium, a poster, where anyone could see it."
Later in the statement, the ASA responds to criticisms that Jeremy Allen White's Calvin Klein ad had not been banned despite being similarly sexual in nature. "We didn’t receive any complaints about the Jeremy Allen White ads that we could pursue, because the complaints appeared to be based on media coverage or ads appearing outside the UK So we haven’t formally investigated the ads."
The association also responded to claims that the ban was racially motivated: "We were also challenged on whether race played a part in our decision to ban the FKA Twigs poster but not the Kendal Jenner [sic] ones. The race or identity of the women was not relevant to and did not form part of our rulings, either original or revised."
Revisit FKA twigs' campaign image below.
