Sexualization of Women and Girls in Fashion Advertising - 2

Jack Wills Advertisements Banned for Sexualization of Women

Jack Wills, a popular clothing company in the UK, had their advertisements banned for Sexualizing Women in the advertisements. According to Jack Wills, the advertising campaign is intended ‘to project a positive, fun and sometimes flirtatious’ image it believes was an accurate reflection of student life.' The 4 different advertisements all had different sexualizations of women, with the fourth one being the most criticized with concern.

"The fourth advert caused the most concern. It shows a young man and a young woman embracing and kissing. The man is shirtless and the woman wearing only knickers. The side of her breast is clearly visible, the ASA said." (x)

 The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) said that the advertisements may depict an appealing lifestyle that other younger target markets may feel they want/need, not just the 18+ target market they were targeting to. Many of the articles that I have read have stated that Jack Wills marketing team should know that even if you are targeting an older teenager market, you will always have younger pre-teens looking at those advertisements, believing that they should act like that now or when they are older. Liz Fraser in this article even stated that Britain has the highest teen pregnancy rate in Western Europe, which is even more of a reason why the marketing team should be more knowledgeable when they are advertising.

 The advertising pamphlet, which was called "Spring Term Handbook", breached advertising laws, governing harm and offence to children. Jack Wills is not allowed to produce those advertisements again.

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As I stated in Part 1, when does the Sexualization of Women in Fashion Advertising draw a line?

I personally think that any Sexualization of Women in any Advertisement is a bad idea, for every age. When advertisements have young girls in provocative clothing, that is sexualization girls that are too young to even know what they are doing. When advertisements feature teenage girls being sexualized, not only does it make other teenage girls feel like they should be like that, but it makes younger girls feel that way too. Hopefully one day advertisers will not use women and girls as sexual objects as advertising campaigns.