Shortly after a British advertising watchdog group ruled that Calvin Klein posters showing the singer FKA twigs with part of her breast exposed “presented her as a stereotypical sexual object” and could not be shown in Britain, the singer denounced “double standards” on Instagram, an apparent reference to a new Calvin Klein campaign featuring the actor Jeremy Allen White.
The Advertising Standards Authority, an industry group created to self-regulate advertising in Britain, issued its decision to ban the ad on Wednesday, nine months after it received two complaints about the poster campaign, which also featured the model and actress Kendall Jenner.
The group found that the image featuring FKA twigs, in which the singer wears a denim shirt draped over one shoulder, leaving much of her body visible, “placed viewers’ focus on the model’s body rather than on the clothing being advertised.”
“The ad used nudity and centered on FKA twigs’s physical features rather than the clothing, to the extent that it presented her as a stereotypical sexual object,” the agency wrote, ultimately concluding that the ad “was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offense.”
FKA twigs rebutted the agency’s characterization on Wednesday. “I do not see the ‘stereotypical sexual object’ that they have labelled me,” she wrote as a caption on the image, a black-and-white photo by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, which she posted on her Instagram account. “I see a beautiful strong woman of colour whose incredible body has overcome more pain than you can imagine.”
The singer, whose representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday, went on to allude to other ads that, in her view, appeared to be getting a pass.
