Gucci Ad With Skinny Models Banned — But Still On YouTube [Video]

Gucci got in trouble for using the below ad, which was deemed to contain at least one model that was too skinny by the Advertising Standards Authority of Britain. As seen in the Gucci video ad below, titled “The Cruise 2016 Campaign — The Director’s Cut” on Gucci’s YouTube channel, several thin models dance around as the dance track’s lyrics sing about losing control again.

The YouTube Gucci ad isn’t new. It was uploaded to YouTube on September 16, 2015, and has surged to nearly 500,000 views due to the controversy about the thin models it contains. The description of the Gucci ad explains the dance party the video’s content contains.

“Following a guest into a dance party in a villa outside Florence, the film directed by Glen Luchford captures the contemporary essence of Alessandro Michele’s Cruise 2016 Collection.”

It was a Gucci dance party that the Advertising Standards Authority ruled contained an unhealthily thin model on April 6. In the “ASA Ruling on Guccio Gucci SpA,” the organization explains what they found troubling about the Gucci ad’s model, after receiving a complaint about too-thin models.

“Still images that appeared at the end of a video for the fashion brand Guccio Gucci SpA, seen on www.thetimes.co.uk on 15 December 2015, featured several models dancing to a soundtrack. Image (a) featured a woman leaning with her back to a wall and was wearing a long dress which covered her body from the neck down to her mid-calves including her arms. Image (b) featured another model who was sitting on a sofa. She was wearing a high necked jacket and a skirt which covered her down to her mid-thighs.

“The complainant, who believed the featured models appeared unhealthily thin, challenged whether the ad was irresponsible. The ASA noted that the model seated on the sofa wore a short skirt which showed her legs up to her mid thighs. We noted that her legs, while slim, appeared to be generally in proportion with the rest of her body…therefore considered that the model did not appear to be unhealthily thin.”

Whereas Gucci didn’t think their models were too thin, the ASA agreed that one model in the Gucci ad leaning against the wall had “quite slender” arms and a torso that wasn’t in proportion with her head and lower body. The specific images mentioned in the ASA ruling have been removed from the Gucci video, but the video footage is still alive in the ad.

A model in a Gucci ad was deemed "unhealthily thin" by a British regulator https://t.co/QI84sbN4F2 pic.twitter.com/nlJ4pZjpp3

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 6, 2016

The ASA also noted that the too-thin model sported make-up that made her eyes appear to be sunken, which added to her skinny look by giving her a “gaunt” face. The British organization called the Gucci ad irresponsible.

Gucci isn’t the only fashion house coming under fire surrounding issues of too-thin models and the controversy over weight. As reported by Us Weekly, Erin Heatherton was a model at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and was told she needed to lose weight.

The 27-year-old Heatherton first modeled for Victoria’s Secret in 2008, but by 2013, Erin said the pressure from the lingerie and clothing company became too much too bear when she was told she needed to thin down. It was during Heatherton’s final two Victoria’s Secret shows when she was told to drop weight. Erin ate healthily and exercised two times per day, but she didn’t lose weight. The situation made Erin depressed, and she said she’d come home at night and look at her food — wondering if she should eat at all.

On Instagram, Erin has written about her “breakdown to breakthrough” moments. She detailed that struggles with her body image and “pressures to fulfill the demands of perfectionism” helped her find the strength to love herself.

[Image via Shutterstock]