Hunter Boots escapes ad ban following complaints over use of 'unhealthily thin' model
Hunter Boots has escaped a ban from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) following a complaint that the brand used an "unhealthily thin" model to promote its clothing.
Hunter Boots escapes ad ban following complaints over use of 'unhealthily thin' model / Hunter Boots
The company has been cleared of any wrongdoing over its ‘Rain Starts Play’ campaign by the regulator after one customer challenged whether a series of Hunter billboards and Facebook ads were "irresponsible".
The complainant took issue with a ten-second Facebook video which showed two women dancing in waterproofs and a London Underground takeover which depicted 12 models wearing Hunter clothing, seven of which featured one of the women from the original Facebook campaign. The member of the public believed that one of the models "appeared unhealthily thin."
Hunter fought back by saying the model in question had a naturally slim build and provided a letter from the model's agency which stated that the model was "of sound health." It added that only her knees and thighs were exposed and as such the campaign didn't provide an overall view of her figure.
The ASA acknowledged that the model in question appeared to have long and slim legs, but that these were in proportion with the rest of her body.
"We considered that, although she was slim, she did not appear to be unhealthily thin, and therefore concluded that the ads were not irresponsible," the watchdog finished.
In April last year the ASA spiked an online ad from Gucci for featuring what it deemed to be "underweight" models.