Two months on, ad watchdog reverses ban on Calvin Klein’s FKA twigs image

It’s not often that the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority changes its mind, but it has done just that over its ban in the New Year of a Calvin Klein ad featuring FKA twigs.

After receiving just two complaints, the regulator had originally said the ad presented the star as “a stereotypical sexual object”. It added that it was “irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence”. But it has now partially backtracked on this.

So why exactly did the ASA change its mind? It said the reversal “took place in the context of the significant strength of public feeling, including views expressed by FKA twigs”, and was also driven by “concern that our rationale for banning the ad was substantially flawed”.

Yet it stuck to its guns in saying the ad was “overtly sexual” and partly maintained its ban saying it wasn’t “suitable for display in an untargeted medium”. 

The body had originally said the “composition placed viewers’ focus on the model’s body rather than on the clothing being advertised”. The ad was for the brand’s denim offer.

But it didn’t ban a Kendall Jenner from the same campaign that had also attracted complaints as it said the imagery didn’t focus on her body in the same way and the amount of flesh on show wasn’t unexpected in a lingerie ad. Nor did it ban imagery featuring male models.

FKA twigs objected at the time and in an Instagram statement said: “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 andMert and Marcus, who gave me a space to express myself exactly how I wanted to – I will not have my narrative changed.”

And Calvin Klein had said the images “were not vulgar and were of two confident and empowered women who had chosen to identify with the Calvin Klein brand, and the ads contained a progressive and enlightened message.” 

It highlighted the use of male models in the campaign in similar poses and said the models had all approved the images.