adidas used bare breasts of every shape to sell 72 bra sizes; the UK watchdog banned it

Promote a new sports-bra range with 72 sizes by celebrating the diversity of breasts and why tailored support matters.

Show a gallery of real bare breasts in every shape and size, captioned 'The reasons we didn't make just one new sports bra', to make the case for 72 sizes.

In February 2022 adidas ran social posts on Instagram and Twitter and posters in public places showing a variety of exposed breasts, some with nipples blurred, with the line 'The reasons we didn't make just one new sports bra'. Adidas said it submitted the ads to the Committees of Advertising Practice, who judged them not sexual but warned that nudity carried risk, and it kept the posters away from schools and religious venues.

The UK Advertising Standards Authority received 24 complaints and banned the ads, saying they must not appear again in the forms complained of. It did not find the images sexually explicit or objectifying, but ruled the nudity explicit, the breasts the main focus rather than the bras, and the posters inappropriately targeted where children might see them. Some social-media users praised the campaign.

In February 2022 adidas launched a sports-bra range with 72 sizes and built its campaign on a single visual point: breasts come in many shapes, so one new bra would not do. Posters and social posts showed a gallery of exposed breasts, some with the nipples blurred, under the line 'The reasons we didn't make just one new sports bra'.

The ASA received 24 complaints, some saying the ads objectified women and sexualised them by reducing them to body parts, and some asking whether public posters were suitable for children. In its ruling it rejected the objectification claim but held that the naked breasts were explicit nudity, that they were the main focus with little emphasis on the bras, and that the posters were inappropriately targeted and likely to cause widespread offence. A tweet carrying the image was also ruled not in keeping with adidas's usual content.

The images were the whole message, so the campaign gave the bras themselves little emphasis, which the ASA noted.

Public posters reach children who never chose to see them, which is where the watchdog drew the line.

Adidas's own pre-clearance advice from the advertising-practice committees had already flagged nudity as a risk.

A message the regulator accepts can still be banned if the placement puts it in front of the wrong audience.

The ASA told adidas UK to make sure its ads did not cause offence and were targeted responsibly. Adidas told Insider the ruling concerned the creative being used in an untargeted fashion, not the message, which it said it stood proudly behind.