Controversial Fashion Ads

This nude shot of Cara Delevingne for Tom Ford's Black Orchid perfume received two complaints for its sexual nature, but was not banned.

Tom Ford is known for having campaigns containing nudity, sexual, sexy and raunchy. One campaign being Tom Ford's first 2007 fragrance for men, shot by Terry Richardson- where the perfume bottle was positioned between the model's pushed-together breast. Another one being nude model spreading her legs wide for camera, but the fragrance bottle strategically placed to cover her genitalia. It's aimed for men, it's "sex sells" kind of message, and would seem to be an easy target to be banned. However, the 2007 ruling found the images were "unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence" to readers of the magazines and the ad appeared in GQ and Wallpaper, who Tom Ford argued were discerning enough to recognise its merit as an image, and "that the highly stylised creative treatment gave the ad an artistic quality, not a salacious one". 

They used a similar argument when this image featuring a nude Cara Delevingne half submerged in water for their Black Orchid fragrance. Of course it received complaint when the campaign image was plastered on a large billboard above Brick Lane. The claim was that neither the pose nor her facial expression were sexually suggestive in any way and that they were 'classical in nature and been depicted in art' was enough for the ASA to again rule in favour of the brand.

Personally, I find the image beautiful and yes to artistic within photography. The may be due to the art and fashion I'm so used to, compared to an ordinary office worker who find these things controversial. I understand that having a nude campaign like this on a large billboard allows anyone to see, especially small children, and teens who look up to models, and then leads to concerns to body image/shaming. But there are far more nudity and provocative campaigns out there, where Delevingne is partially covered, from the angle she's positioned and her arm covering her breasts.



Reference: http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/24720/1/fashion-v-censorship-a-history-of-banned-ads-miu-miu-tom-ford