JACK Wills in Salcombe has been banned from using an advert after it was deemed to be ‘sexualised’ and ‘inappropriate’ by the ASA.

The ASA, the Advertising Standards Authority, have upheld a decision not to allow Jack Wills to use an advert again, after a complaint was made.

The advert is described as featuring ‘images of male and female models in their underwear drinking, dancing and on a bed together’, while the text read: ‘UNDERWEAR…Pure and comfortable cottons, or flirty delicate laces, whatever your choice, you can be sure it’s what’s underneath that counts…’And large text at the bottom which read: ‘… midnight MISCHIEF’.

On another page, promoting ‘loungewear’, the advert featured ‘male and female models on a bed. Some of the models wore loungewear, one male model was topless on a bed with a woman while reading and another woman wore a bra with a strap falling off her shoulder.’

The issue was whether the images were unsuitable for publication in a clothing catalogue that was ‘targeted at, and seen by, teenagers’.

Jack Wills responded by saying they targeted 18-24-year-old university students and ‘not younger teenagers’.

They said the catalogue was ‘addressed and sent to the complainant, not her children, and was delivered in a sealed, opaque paper envelope’ and that the the terms and conditions on their website: ‘In particular, we draw your attention to our policies relating to the terms of purchase and our Privacy Policy. If you are under 18, you must let your parent or guardian know about Jack Wills Privacy Policy before you register to use this Site or any of this Site’s services’.

They said it was in keeping with their brand image to portray five friends in all of its campaigns and that the images showed a group of friends ‘enjoying a weekend away’. They said the images ‘were not sexualised, provocative and did not imply sexual activity in any way. They also said none of the images featured any nudity and that none of the garments worn by the models was transparent’.

They also said that in the future they would ‘make it clear that consumers were required to be over the age of 18 to receive their correspondence’.

The ASA however upheld the ruling and stated ‘younger teens might have access to the ad either directly or indirectly’.

They said that while ‘most of the garments were appropriately fitted and did not accentuate or highlight parts of their bodies in a sexualised manner’ the images were accompanied with claims such as ‘MIDNIGHT MISCHIEF’ and ‘made for the morning after the night before’

They also considered that because of the ‘story’ created in the images, they ‘considered that this sequence of images, in conjunction with the text, was sexually suggestive as opposed to simply being flirtatious or playful’.

The ASA ruled that ‘the ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Jack Wills Ltd not to use sexualised images and text that were inappropriate for younger teenagers in ads to which those teenagers could have both direct and indirect access.’