Agent Provocateur window displays in House of Fraser

Sorry just one very last thing from that ASA link in case it helps to phrase a complaint:

How the ASA will judge complaints

When considering complaints the ASA will take into account:
• the nature of the product advertised
• the context of the ad and its location
• the medium in which the ad appears, including the size of the advertisement
• the audience and
• the likely response of that audience.

The ASA will also take into account the ability of advertisers to restrict the placement of their outdoor advertising, for example within 100m of schools.

Play areas and where families shop (should) also count as exposing an ad to children.

Also this link offers the ASA’s helpfully specific guide to what is considered ‘sexualised’ advertising content.. (again making the point it’s the context of where the image is shown that can result in ASA intervening):

www.asa.org.uk/asset/B2B3FDDA%2D93BD%2D476F%2DAB983AD77DA61079/

I stopped shopping in HoF the day Ashley bought it. Can't stand the man. And I don't disagree Ruth you about the window display

Does it count as underwear if a) it doesn’t keep you warm, b) doesn’t hold your boobs/bum in place, c) covers less than 1% of your body, d) looks like a piece of medieval torture?

This document for Parliament sets out the rules.... so it might also be worth @ing your local MP so that they know there’s sexualised advertising visible to children on their patch.

researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8198/CBP-8198.pdf

5. Marketing and children: Specific issues
5.1 Advertisements located close to schools, play areas etc.
Once planning consent has been granted for an advertising hoarding, local authorities generally have no control over the subject matter of advertisements. Complaints about the content of a billboard or poster advertisements should be directed to the ASA. Such advertising falls under the remit of the CAP Code.
The placement of an advertisement will have a direct bearing on whether the ASA will judge it to be acceptable. It follows from this that an advert might be acceptable to the ASA if it appears in a magazine intended to be read by an adult but might be unacceptable if it appears on a billboard (see section 5.1 below).

5.2 Sexualised imagery
In 2011, the Department for Education published a report, “Letting Children be Children”, highlighting concerns about the sexualisation and commercialisation of children.

The ASA responded to the issues raised in this report by reconsidering its position in relation to sexualised imagery in posters.
Outdoor posters (e.g. billboards) which are “overtly/explicitly sexual’ are now prohibited, and material considered “sexually suggestive” must carry a placement restriction, ensuring it does not appear within 100 metres of a school.

They are awful and would not make me buy the underwear. I like nice underwear but definitely not this! All I can see now is the fart vent! And the second one looks like electrical tape .....

The one on oxford street is t all the far from soho. I’ve seen more tasteful displays on widows there.

I hate the joyless objectification of ‘uncomfortable women= What sex should be like’ in these ads and why men are supposed to want to buy into it... but leaving that aside for now.

i wonder if the best means of making a complaint and causing a fuss which the advertiser (Agent Provocateur) might get concerned about (or House of Fraser) might do, is that this campaign clearly is not aimed at adults.

It’s deliberately aimed at everyone- all ages, all social groups, because it’s placed on a high street bill boards in store and in the high street. In family department stores which are viewed and shopped in by everyone. Next to play areas too as PP have said.

If House of Fraser want to keep their stores shopped in by everyone they need to not offend, alienate or be avoided by their actual and potential customers.

It’s reasonable to ask them publicly WHY shops and manufacturers want to show explicit adverts with unhappy women with porn and bondage themes where (as it happens) the models look both miserable and either with something painful put up their bum or trussed up/restrained... but even if the models looked like they were having the best, happy and consensual sex of their lives, those kind of pictures should not be on show where kids and the many other people who will object to sexualised imagery can not reasonably take ANY steps to avoid seeing them.

So I think Twitter complaints which @ the HoF, AP and Advertising Standards Authority are worth it as well as emailed complaints. (Btw the ASA regulate social media and other online ads as well as billboard..)

This is why so many men, who should be on side, feminism is good for positive thinking men too, will not take feminism seriously!

What a silly thing to say! We shouldn’t get upset because men won’t take feminism seriously otherwise? Ummm sorry but the whole point is we aren’t here to please men thank you very much! It’s a women’s movement, so we don’t need to pretend we don’t mind objectification and pornification of women’s bodies just to get men who do like it, ‘on our side’. This is normalisation of soft porn and I don’t like it. Neither do most of the women I have asked, certainly most here. Whether or not men mind isn’t going to have any bearing on my position.

Totally agree Starlight.

Starlight
Can't you see that fgm, breast ironing and porn in a shop window are all part of the same flipping thing? That women are fuckholes there for male pleasure only? That women are objects, toys even?

I don't think it's a big deal. They aren't naked, all the bits and pieces are covered so who cares?

The pictures aren't that good though - as others have said the one on the left looks like she's doing a difficult fart lol.

Starlight

I'm not sure what "type" of feminist you consider yourself to be, but this feminist looks at these pictures and the influence of porn and bondage culture positively permeate from these photos. I am not a prude--I think a woman's body is beautiful in all its many forms, and some boobs or a curvaceous butt are lovely. But this... makes me want to vomit. It is a reflection of what women are supposed to be and want to be in our modern culture. I reject it fully. I would show my children, and we'd laugh. "Where are her undies? She's going to be awfully cold!" "Look! She has gas,
too!" On your own, with your children,
you CAN dismantle any shred of allure or power these photos might convey.

Starlight I find it possible to think about all those issues and this one. Maybe I am a genius.
I tend not to decide what I think is important based on how men might view it. That must be exhausting.

I completely understand that underwear can be advertised.. but.. it's never the useful stuff is it. It's always the stuff with a barely covered woman.

BTW. Try this with blokes, have them try to do their shopping with 10foot mainly naked men in come-hither postures surrounding them, they find it a bit uncomfortable too!

I do have one confession. When I saw these adverts in the shop window, the first thing I did was take a picture of the first one zoomed in on the back of the pants to send to DP, with the caption 'look, they think of everything, knickers with a fart vent' - so I don't think he'll be able to look at the advert in the expected way any more.

Starlight and Doyoumind

Often I feel the same as you about advertising aimed at adults, but in this case I think the images are a bit too much. The second one doesn’t even look like underwear, just like a naked woman tied up. Also although this is aimed at adults, as it’s a shop window, anyone can see it and I certainly am not happy with my children being exposed to such extreme sexualised objectification of women.

I'm afraid I'm with Starlight.

Goodness me! I know this is going to go down like a tonne of bricks, but I’m going to take the risk as someone who has been described as a lipstick wearing skirt wearing feminist. I’m in my 40s and cool with that description.

We are living in a world of FGM, breast ironing, the pay gap, child marriage and the necessity of the Me Too movement! And we are fussing over a little lingerie! Only friends see me in my underwear!

This is why so many men, who should be on side, feminism is good for positive thinking men too, will not take feminism seriously!

If anyone made me wear this, they would be very sorry they did.

It will a sight they won’t forget in a hurry.

The men can buy it, but they can’t make us wear it.

It also looks as though she's wearing the suspenders over the knickers, so going to the loo will be awkward.

I wonder if it's for Valentine's Day? If so, they're probably not fussed what ladies think about it, then just want men to buy it!

Agree it's not nice to have this in a high street window.

Like a few other posters what strikes me is how thin the model appears to be. If you imagine the model with a more "zaftig" figure, it becomes even more overtly sexual and even clearer that it's tasteless to have this in a shop window.

Sometimes I wonder if really slim models are so that "sexy" stuff can be seen as "high fashion" rather than just "porn."

@fairyflaps you’re right. In Aylesbury these are next to a children’s play area which makes it worse. I complained to the store and they said nothing they can do. I complained to ASA who also said nothing they can do as it’s a shop window display and they do not cover these. Have emailed house of Fraser but expecting a response for a few days. Other suggestions from ASA were local MP and local Council

Totally inappropriate. Everyone needs to comment on Twitter or write in to complain.

Not tweet. That's exactly what he wants.