PrettyLittleThing ad pulled from YouTube for being too sexy

An advertising standards body banned the commercial from online retailer PrettyLittleThing for being “overly sexualised”.

Fashion retailer PrettyLittleThing was forced to pull its YouTube ad after an advertising standards body upheld a complaint declaring it “overly sexualised”.

The ad, which featured models wearing skimpy outfits from the UK-based online retailer, originally debuted in late October.

The authority said the ad was ‘overly sexualised’.

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK said the video, which appeared as a pre-roll ad on YouTube, showed women in “seductive poses, wearing various lingerie-style clothing,” and began with a model “looking over her shoulder in a seductive manner wearing black vinyl, high-waisted chaps-style knickers which revealed her buttocks.”

Other scenes involved “wearing a transparent mesh bodysuit” while “lying on her side with her knee bent up and with a neon bar in between her legs,” as well as a scene depicting a woman in a bikini “holding the neon bar behind her shoulders in a highly sexualised pose which accentuated her breasts,” among other poses.

PrettyLittleThing said the ad was empowering and inclusive.

“We considered that the cumulative effect of the scenes meant that overall, the products had been presented in an overly sexualised way that invited viewers to view the women as sexual objects,” the ASA wrote in its ruling.

“We therefore concluded that the ad was likely to cause serious offence and was irresponsible.”

The ASA also determined the ad breached two rules put forward by the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP), including those regarding “a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society” and another asking advertisers to “consider public sensitivities before using potentially offensive material.”

The ASA said the ad was seductive and objectified women.

The ASA said the ad couldn’t run on YouTube in its current form.

The ASA wrote that it contacted PrettyLittleThing to inform the company the ad “must not appear again in its current form” as it was “likely to cause serious offence by objectifying women”.

Prior to the ruling, PrettyLittleThing had defended the ad, saying it was intended to “celebrate diversity and promote inclusivity through bold and distinctive fashion of all shapes and sizes,” adding that it was meant to be empowering.

PrettyLittleThing appears to have removed the ad from its YouTube page, which currently hosts several of the brand’s other seasonal advertisements.

A representative for PrettyLittleThing was not immediately available to comment on Wednesday morning, but shared a statement with the Manchester Evening News confirming that the company was aware of the ASA’s ruling.

“PLT is aware of the ASA guidelines and strives to ensure all its adverts comply with ASA guidelines,” the retailer said in a statement.

This article originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission