Calvin Klein Ad Ban Partially Reversed After ASA Review

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has partially reversed their ban on a Calvin Klein advertisement featuring singer FKA Twigs. 

Why was the advert banned?

The Calvin Klein advert was originally banned following two complaints about the poster from April 2023, which features British singer and songwriter FKA Twigs wearing a shirt drawn halfway around her body, leaving the side of her buttocks and half of one breast exposed. The complaints were based on concerns that the advert was “overly sexualised” and caused offence by objectifying women. These complaints were upheld in the ASA’s original ruling, which was published in January, which found that the image “placed viewers' focus on the model's body" rather than her clothing and "presented her as a stereotypical sexual object".

However, the other two posters from the same campaign, featuring Kendall Jenner, were not banned despite receiving similar complaints. The ASA stated that the posters did not focus on Jenner’s body in a way that would portray her as a sexual object in the way that the poster featuring FKA Twigs did. They also stated that the level of nudity in Jenner’s advert was not above what would be expected for a lingerie advert. 

FKA Twigs responds to advert ban

The decision to only ban the poster featuring FKA Twigs was widely criticised by the public, with Twigs responding to the ban in a viral Instagram post that has gained over 360,000 likes and almost 5,000 comments. In the post, which accused the regulator of double standards, Twigs stated that she did not agree that she was being portrayed as a “sexual object” and was instead a “beautiful strong woman of colour”, saying:

“i do not see the ‘stereotypical sexual object’ that they have labelled me. i see a beautiful strong woman of colour whose incredible body has overcome more pain than you can imagine.

in light of reviewing other campaigns past and current of this nature, i can’t help but feel there are some double standards here. so to be clear…

i am proud of my physicality and hold the art i create with my vessel to the standards of women like josephine baker, eartha kitt and grace jones who broke down barriers of what it looks like to be empowered and harness a unique embodied sensuality. thank you to ck and mert and marcus who gave me a space to express myself exactly how i wanted to - i will not have my narrative changed.”

Calvin Klein has also defended the ad, which is similar to those that have been published in previous campaigns without issue, and described the singer as a “confident and empowered woman”. They also stated that FKA Twigs had seen and approved the image before its publication. 

So, why was the decision reversed? 

The ASA has contributed part of its reasoning for reviewing their ruling to the public response, saying in their recent statement about the ruling being changed that “Our decision to ban only the poster featuring FKA Twigs was widely criticised, not least by the singer herself. We’re not deaf to the commentary that surrounds our decision making. 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.” 

However, they have attributed the main reason for the review to their wording in their original statement in explaining their rationale for believing that FKA Twigs had been objectified, saying that it was inconsistent with their treatment of the posters and therefore needed to be corrected. 

Although the new ruling means that the ad can now be seen by the public again, the ASA maintains that although the advert is not secually explicit, it was “overtly sexual and was, therefore, not suitable for display in an untargeted medium" such as posters at bus stops, where it could be viewed by minors. The republished ruling has been declared as final.