In February this year, Adidas shared a collage of more than 20 naked women across its social media platforms to promote its sports bra collection for ladies of 'all shapes and sizes'.

An Adidas campaign, which features dozens of pictures of women's bare breasts, has been banned by UK's advertising watchdog following massive public outrage. 

In February this year, the iconic sportswear maker shared a collage of more than 20 naked women across its social media platforms to promote its sports bra collection for ladies of 'all shapes and sizes'.

“We believe women’s breasts in all shapes and sizes deserve support and comfort. Which is why our new sports bra range contains 43 styles, so everyone can find the right fit for them.” Adidas said at the time.

Two posters showed similar cropped images of 62 and 64 women, and stated, “The reasons we didn’t make just one new sports bra.”

The advertising campaign sparked a widespread discussion with several concerns being raised that the ads were not suitable for children.

However, on Wednesday, May 11, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned the campaign stating that it had received 24 complaints that the advertisement's use of nudity was “gratuitous, objectified women by sexualising them and reducing them to body parts”.

Adidas UK said the images were intended to “reflect and celebrate different shapes and sizes, illustrate the diversity and demonstrate why tailored support bras were important”.

They said the images had been cropped to protect the identity of the models and to ensure their safety, adding that all the models shown had volunteered to be in the ad and were supportive of its aims.

Twitter said the post had been reported by some users but was not found to be in breach of its terms of service.

Also read: Adidas Breast Campaign: Global brands, including Victoria’s Secret, Allen Solly, that spoke of body positivity

In an official statement the ASA said, "Although we did not consider that the way the women were portrayed was sexually explicit or objectified them, we considered that the depiction of naked breasts was likely to be seen as explicit nudity."

“As the ads contained explicit nudity, we considered that they required careful targeting to avoid causing offence to those who viewed them," it added.

Referring to the two posters, the ASA said, “We considered that the image was not suitable for use in untargeted media, particularly where it could be seen by children. We concluded that (the posters) were inappropriately targeted, and were likely to cause widespread offence.”

“We noted the content typically featured on the Adidas Twitter feed promoted their sportswear for women and considered explicit nudity was not in keeping with their usual content. Because (the tweet) featured explicit nudity, we concluded it was likely to cause widespread offence in that media. We, therefore, concluded that the ads breached the Code," the ASA concluded.

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