Adidas sports bra ad: why has bare breasts advert been banned in UK - and why has it been called ‘offensive’?

An Adidas campaign which featured dozens of sets of breasts and was intended to promote the diversity of its range of sports bras has been banned by the UK.

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) criticised the adverts for using explicit nudity and also placing the ads where children could see them.

So, what did the advert show, what exactly did the ASA say and how has Adidas responded?

Here’s what you need to know.

The advert, which ran on Twitter and some large posters across the UK, showed various bare breasts.

The image, which was first posted on the Adidas UK Twitter in February, showed the breasts of 20 women of various skin colours, shapes and sizes in a grid format.

The image was posted with the caption “We believe women’s breasts in all shapes and sizes deserve support and comfort. Which is why our new sports bra range contains 43 styles, so everyone can find the right fit for them.”

Other posters showed similar cropped images of 62 and 64 women, and had the tagline “The reasons we didn’t make just one new sports bra.”

The campaign led to 24 complaints to the ASA, as people believed that the ads were gratuitous and objectified women by “sexualising them and reducing them to body parts”.

They also said the images were harmful and offensive and were concerned they could also be seen by children.

The ASA said the depiction of naked breasts in the campaign, including one ad where pixelation was used to blur the nipples of the models, was “likely to be seen as explicit nudity”.

They said: “We noted the breasts were the main focus in the ads, and there was less emphasis on the bras themselves, which were only referred to in the accompanying text.

“As the ads contained explicit nudity, we considered that they required careful targeting to avoid causing offence to those who viewed them.”

The ASA said the large poster sites were not targeted and could be seen by people of all ages, including children, and the ads were therefore likely to cause widespread offence.

The use of the ad on the Adidas Twitter page was not in keeping with the usual content of the brand, the ASA said, and therefore ruled it was also likely to offend.

Twitter said the ad showing bare nipples was an “organic, not a paid-for, tweet” that had been reported by some users, but was not found to be in breach of their terms of service.

The ASA concluded that “the ads must not appear again in the forms complained of.”

They said: “We told Adidas UK to ensure their ads did not cause offence and were targeted responsibly.”

Adidas UK defended its advertising campaign, and said the images were not gratuitous or sexual but were instead intended to “reflect and celebrate different shapes and sizes and illustrate diversity”.

The sportswear company also said the images had been cropped to protect the identity of the models, and  those models had all volunteered to be in the campaign and were supportive of its aims.

The firm also said: “It is important to note that the ASA ruling was related to this creative being used in an untargeted fashion on email / banner ads /etc rather than the creative itself and the message, which we stand proudly behind, and it is exhibited on adidas.com.”

Adidas added that it had not run the ads on posters or billboards near schools or religious venues, and did not think the campaign would cause harm or distress to children.