Back in March of 2023, British singer, songwriter, and dancer, Tahliah Barnett, more commonly known as FKA Twigs, featured in an advert for popular underwear brand Calvin Klein. The advert featured the 36-year-old artist in an over shirt draped around her body with the caption “Calvins or nothing”. On January 10, 2024, the UK’s independent advertising regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), released a statement saying that the advert violated national standards.
The advert, as well as two posters that featured Kendall Jenner for the same brand, received complaints that the imagery was “offensive and irresponsible, because they objectified women; and” was “inappropriate for display in an untargeted medium.” Whilst the ASA concluded that the posters featuring Kendall Jenner were found to be within regulatory standards since she is covered to a degree that the ASA considers “no more than mildly sexual”, the ASA deemed the poster featuring FKA Twigs to be “overtly sexual and… not suitable for display in an untargeted medium.”
The key contention held by the ASA is that Barnett’s poster relies upon nudity to draw the viewer’s attention instead of the advertised clothing. In this regard, the ASA ruled that the poster “used nudity and centred on FKA Twig’s physical features rather than the clothing, to the extent that it presented her as a stereotypical sexual object”.
Despite a response from Calvin Klein that argued that the “Images were not vulgar and were of two confident and empowered women who had chosen to identify with the Calvin Klein brand”, the ASA ruled that the advertisement “must not appear again in the form complained of”.
In response to the ASA, FKA Twigs took to Instagram to say: “I do not see the ‘stereotypical sexual object’ that they have labelled me.” She added “in light of reviewing other campaigns past and current of this nature, I can’t help but feel there are some double standards here.” What makes this ruling especially contentious, to many online, is the use of male models in equally suggestive marketing, receiving no criticism.
Although the ASA may have a technical case for pulling the FKA Twigs poster, it is hard to ignore that the singer openly endorses the poster and feels that she was able to “express myself exactly how I wanted to”. FKA Twigs cited women of colour like “Josephine Baker, Eartha Kitt and Grace Jones” who pushed boundaries in art and performance as inspiration for her work. Within this context, FKA Twigs’ feature has been deemed by many online to be entirely uncontroversial, with American indie-rock artists Mattiel commenting: “I see discipline in this photo. Many many years of discipline and thoughtful caretaking of the self.”
