Urban Outfitters’ ‘harmful’ and ‘irresponsible’ ad is banned

Urban Outfitters have found themselves in the midst of controversy once again over an advert that has been branded ‘harmful’ by The Advertising Standards Authority.

The advert, for a pair of underwear, features a model who – according to the ASA – was irresponsibly skinny: "We considered that the model was very thin, and noted, in particular, that there was a significant gap between the model’s things, and that her thighs and knees were a similar width.”

While Urban Outfitters denied that the model used was underweight, the ASA maintained that the model’s image could prove harmful to their target audience of teenagers: “We understood that Urban Outfitters’ target market was young people and consider that using a noticeably underweight model was likely to impress upon that audience that the image was representative of the people who might wear Urban Outfitters’ clothing, and as something to aspire to. We therefore concluded that the ad was irresponsible.”

Urban Outfitters also stated that the model used in the image had been employed from "one of the UK's most successful and well-respected agencies."

This isn’t the first time the high street store has found itself in hot water. Not long ago, they were forced to apologise for a jumper which featured what appeared to be blood specks. In an unfortunate turn of events, the jumper also held the logo of Kent State University, where four students were tragically shot in 1970.