To find these New Look school uniform adverts unacceptable?

[TheWildZebra]

Just that really - screen shot below.

mini skirts , cherries, twirling hair ?

am I a prude or are these just evidence of sexualisation of young women?

Disgraceful. It is hard trying to enforce school uniform in schools because shops sell clothes that are unsuitable under the guise of school uniform.

Yep, nothing is by accident. I hope that some New Look executives are reading this and either rethinking their strategy or getting v worried

Oh god, I bought my 14yo a lovely purse with cherrys on, it never occurred to me 🤦‍♀️. She’s not used it so I expect I could sneak it out of her room and she wouldn’t notice. It’s a shame though because it’s really nice.

I teach at secondary level and to be honest this is what a lot of year 10 and 11 girls seem to look like these days. I didn’t really register it as inappropriate because I see it every day and I guess I’m desensitised. It’s interesting seeing it through other people’s eyes though.

I wouldn’t worry about cherries as a pattern on an item so much, it’s the random placement of the ones superimposed on the advert that is odder.

i bet the marketing team know what it means though

Depends

If they are made up of young "hip" types around the main demographic age of the target market... I'd not be surprised they didn't

It's really not modern slang and the cherry motif is everywhere

Oh, thanks for confirming my suspicion!!

There's a green grocers in the next town over, so I must pop over before the season ends!!

I can testify that teenagers knew the implications of cherries circa 2010. Understanding sexual innuendo is high priority for teenagers, so I don't see it having slipped out of vocabulary that fast. It's not like using a rotary phone.

I'm surprised you're desensitised. Where I work we seem to get so many Safeguarding and Child Protection updates it tends to make me more aware. Plus, we're always told to err on the side of caution, be aware of signs, CPOM if in doubt.

The problem, as pp have said,is the marketing. Presenting young girls as sexually aware and flirtatious, at the very least. It's not appropriate.

@UsingAMansNameInAWomensWorld I have checked with a young friend (29 yo) who is an account manager at a big London branding company and also an english lit grad. She knows what cherries signify - innocence interrupted. She knew the other allusion too, because she is VERY hip indeed. But she's also bright, and knew the older allusion.

I conclude the use of the motif was deliberate on two levels.

This has been my thought too - I had no clue NL did uniform and I’ve gone straight to their site to take a look! Take a bow, OP 🤣

Sadly I don' think they'll be worried. This thread has demonstrated a lack of awareness and concern about the looks and imagery shown in the advert. If anything they'll be thinking oh goodie, we've got some traction here.

Very depressing.

Just show girls learning or doing - as a mother that's what would draw me to spend money.

It's amazing how many of you totally missed the point of the thread. This is not about skirt length.

An advert for clarks shoes came on last night. Compare and contrast. It was kids of both sexes running, jumping, careening around… not a hip pop or a placed toe to be seen.

We know why the cherries are there.

It’s giving Britney Spears in the ‘00s.

Yes, it was explained in this earlier post.

“It's an old and oudated, no longer relevant reference. It's currently a trendy logo based on its use as a logo at a very popular club in the Ibiza clubbing scene, and hence why it's popular with secondary age children. It's not used currently to denote sexuality in modern culture, it's a trendy logo linked to the clubbing scene, and is a popular logo on teens clothes without sexual overtones”

For 80% of the population, it DOES denote sexuality.

I agree that the cherries and their placement is soooo random and weird!!!

THAT Britney Speers video would be banned now.

The 00s was as icky as the 70s.

Clubs used to do school uniform
nights which no doubt attracted the pervs.

Glad we don’t see those any more.

Oh I’m not desensitised to all the safeguarding stuff, you couldn’t be working in a school. But to teenage girls presenting like this I am desensitised. The school before my last one had rather lost control of the makeup situation and over half the year 11 girls were coming in with a full face of makeup every day. There were also a lot of false eyelashes and nails. It’s really sad, but when they’re all doing it it becomes less of an obvious sign of concern if that makes sense.

There's a clear distinction though isn't there, @ThreePointOneFourOneFiveNine , between kids doing it to themselves and adults presenting those kids for profit? Nothing wrong with profit - I'm a capitalist like the rest of us. But those images are obv made by adults, and feature children. As you say, you can get used to the kids looking like that, but when one realises it's adults doing it, it becomes yucky doesn't it?

I think that's a difference a lot of people don't seem to be able to grasp

No, it's a Safeguarding issue if you can see a young girl's bottom because her skirt is so short. So I never ignore how they dress, and report if it causes concern.
I've been teaching for many years. I'll never get desensitised.