'Gang rape' ad ban sees D&G slammed

"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 Monday," the Advertising Self-Discipline Institute (IAP) said in a statement.

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 "immobilized and subjected to a man's will," the statement 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.

The ad promoting D and G's spring/summer 2007 ready-to-wear collection has appeared in several women's magazines in Italy and in the daily La Repubblica.

Last Friday, 13 Italian senators and Equal Opportunity Minister Barbara Pollastrini demanded in a joint letter to the IAP that the ad be withdrawn from circulation.

D and G already pulled the ad in Spain last month while labelling the country "a bit backward" for the objections raised by the government and a consumer association.

AFP

(China Daily 03/08/2007 page19)