'Explicit' Adidas Ad Ban Challenges Definitions of Sexualization and Censorship

While the egregious sexism of the Mad Men-era might be behind us, brands are still guilty of promoting products through a male gaze. In April, Samsung caught heat for an ad showing a woman jogging alone through dark city streets at 2 a.m. More recently, Adidas stood accused of “dehumanizing” women with a series of sports bra ads showing dozens of naked breasts of differing shape, size and skin tone. Adidas' “Support Is Everything” ads by TBWA\Neboko were banned by the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regulator last week after 24 complaints from the public. The reason? “The depiction of naked breasts was likely to be seen as explicit nudity,” said the watchdog. "[This meant the ads] required careful targeting to avoid causing offense to those who viewed them."Though some people challenged whether the creative was sexist, the ASA disagreed on that point. Adidas stood by the European campaign, which ran on billboards and online, saying it had two missions: to sell a sports bra range, featuring 43 different styles, and to promote body diversity in the process. Milking it When Adidas first unveiled the ad, Renee Engeln, a psychology professor at Northwestern University and director of the Body and Media Lab, said, despite the inclusivity on display, there was nothing interesting or new about using women’s body parts to sell things. “Adidas created and posted a collage of women’s breasts to get attention. There’s nothing particularly subversive about that,” she told the Washington Post. Having run campaigns on gender equality in digital media, Rebecca Fennelly, director of brand and communication at Fanbytes and formerly Joe Media, disagreed, saying the ASA “misunderstood the assignment.” For those who claimed the ads diminished women, she advised “a collective step back to put the spotlight on what sexualization and objectification of women actually is, what it looks like and, more crucially, what it feels like.” As a consumer, she related to the creative: “I felt seen, heard and understood which—as a woman who has worked in this industry for over a decade—is sadly still a rarity. The strategy couldn’t have been clearer or better executed.” For copywriter and creative Vikki Ross, the attention-grabbing execution wasn’t quite right. “We all know women have all sorts of boobs, so why show us this?” she questioned, saying a bigger opportunity for Adidas would have been to embrace different elements of the campaign where it acknowledged the discomfort women experience when wearing an ill-fitting sports bra.“That's more interesting and hasn't been presented to us before,” Ross added. “It shows a better understanding in a more relevant context. Women will instantly relate to those images and understand that Adidas can solve their problem. What brand wouldn't want to create such a quick and easy and effective communication?” Censorship challenges Breasts aren’t exactly unusual in ads. However, recently, brands aimed at women have been trying to reclaim them—and they’re being meet with censorship challenges. Platforms have traditionally viewed breasts as inherently sexual, and content moderators have policed them as such. In 2021, baby brand Tommee Tippee showed boobs in their full functional glory in a series aimed at new moms. Facebook and Instagram banned “The Boob Life” for depicting nudity and breastfeeding. The platforms also have detailed rules around “breast squeezing” in photos, meaning some ads from breast cancer awareness nonprofits have been rejected. “I saw myself in that Tommee Tippee ad and I see myself in this Adidas ad. That is the holy grail for an advertiser, is it not?” asked Fennelly. “I’d argue it’s the literal opposite of objectification. It is subjectification, the procedures by which the subject is led to observe herself, analyze herself, interpret herself and recognize herself as a domain of possible knowledge.” Facebook’s parent firm Meta—which in the U.S. alone captures 24% of digital spend—has long been the target of #FreeTheNipple activists questioning why women’s nipples (except under dictated circumstances) are forbidden where men’s are liberated. Jumping on this, London ad agency Truant unveiled its own version of the creative, highlighting the double standard with a tagline reading: “Back to your regularly scheduled nipples.” Media matters Beyond “gratuity” and ASA’s issue with Adidas' ad was the notion it could cause “widespread offense” in the untargeted mediums where it ran across Twitter and OOH sites. The regulator claimed it was inappropriate for kids, fueling the belief breasts are for sexual or adult content. For freelance creative and art director Laila Low, who works with clients like Honda and the NHS, the creative reminded her of a visually similar campaign she ran for breast cancer charity CoppaFeel! in 2015 with agency Karmarama. The team behind the barechested push had to place billboards carefully to strike the balance between causing offense and delivering a message of empowerment to audiences. She thought Adidas' message was “clear and powerful,” like the photography. “I don't understand how these boobs were sexualized. Are the women holding them and squeezing them in a provocative way, looking at the camera? No. They're photographs of boobs, people need to get over it.” She argued brands should feel confident in producing such work and prepared to defend it: “Not everyone is going to like all your ads, and nor should they." With Adidas investing more money into women’s sports and related products—with a huge campaign launched at the start of 2022 to support new innovations and help established as well as emerging athletes—we can expect more trailblazing work from them. ASA Innocent Ban Reminds Us That Plastic Is Less Than Fantastic