02/23/2007
Dolce & Gabbana plans to pull the advertisement, which shows a man holding a woman to the ground by her wrists while a group of men look on, following complaints from consumers' groups.
Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has branded Spain as being 'behind the times' for demanding it withdraw a controversial advertising campaign, a newspaper reported on Friday. Dolce & Gabbana plans to pull the advertisement following complaints from consumers' groups. "We will only withdraw this photo from the Spanish market. They're a bit behind the times," La Vanguardia newspaper quoted the Milan-based fashion house as saying.
Dolce & Gabbana, known for their risque clothes and adverts, declined to comment on the matter. Spain's Labour and Social Affairs Ministry branded the campaign as illegal and humiliating to women, saying the woman's body position had no relation to the products Dolce & Gabbana were trying to sell.
"The advertisement showing a woman pinned to the ground by the wrists by a bare-chested man, with other men in the background looking on", has been banned since yesterday, the Advertising Self-Discipline Institute (IAP) said.
The body said the ad "offended the dignity of the woman, in the sense that the feminine figure is shown in a degrading manner. The woman has an alienated expression, with an absent look".
The woman in the ad is "immobilised and subjected to a man's will", the IAP said.
"Because of the passive and helpless position of the woman relative to the men around her, (the image evokes) the representation of abuse or the idea of violence towards her," the IAP said.
"One could infer from the advertisement that it is acceptable to use force as a way of imposing oneself on a woman, reinforced by the passive and complicit manner of the men looking on," the ministry said in a statement.Dolce & Gabbana defended the campaign as art in comments reported by La Vanguardia. "What has an artistic photo got to do with a real act?" the paper quoted the firm as saying. "You would have to burn museums like the Louvre or the paintings of Caravaggio."
The fracas follows criticism from Britain's advertising watchdog last month about another Dolce & Gabbana campaign showing models brandishing knives.
The British Advertising Standards Authority upheld more than 150 complaints from people concerned that the pictures glorified and condoned violent crime. In that case, the company said the ads were heavily stylised and mimicked early 19th century art.
One could argue the ad certainly paints a questionable picture and perpetuates an activity that certainly does not need perpetuating. Others might argue the ad, and many other fashion ads, is so over-the-top cartoonish in its desire to be "edgy," that it's a harmless toss off passed over as one glosses through the fake world of fashion magazines. What do you think?
1 comments:
Wah shiyun i love the pictures that you posted (PICTURES finally). to be honest, i scrolled down the page and looked at the pictures 1st before reading the text. the feeling that i got from these ads is... wow very sexy and suggestive. i find the 1st ad quite offensive, as in they are quite disrespectful to women. besides giving me the idea that this is a fashion ad, i thought that it relates to social problem too. maybe like a glamorized version of some social problem ads. but these ads indeed captured people's attention, which can be considered as successful too?
another interesting thing is that, we usually wont find erotic art offensive. the article mentioned about 'artistic photos'. but how one defines the term 'artistic'?? are these photos/ads artistic??
so ya this is what i think after reading your blog! oh ya ya is xingzhi here btw :P
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