Banning Adidas’s bare boobs campaign is yet another example of censoring women’s bodies

Offensive. Harmful. 

These are just a couple of the reasons that the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has cited for banning an Adidas advert that features the breasts of 20 people of various shapes, sizes and skin colours. 

I’m baffled… How can we, in 2022, be calling breasts ‘offensive’ or ‘harmful’ in any single capacity? This does, unfortunately, feel like a big step backwards for feminism. 

Women grow up conditioned to be ashamed of their breasts. If you have big boobs, you’re often called a slut and told you’re provoking men while just… existing in your body. If you have small boobs, that’s a shame, cos men only like big boobs, right? 

If you show them off, you’re promiscuous. If you cover them up, prudish. And they had better be the perfect areola to nipple ratio, stretch mark-free and god forbid they’re saggy ‘cos… Ew, right? They can’t be showing any signs of life or living. 

They must be the perfect, flawless toys/eye candy for men, but remember that when/if they do look like that, you’re at risk of being provocative and ‘teasing’ (men).

Breasts are shrouded in SO much shame. And the banning of this advert, which Adidas launched to celebrate breasts in all their glory and all shapes and sizes, seems to further perpetuate and reinforce that shame. 

‘We believe women’s breasts in all shapes and sizes deserve support and comfort. Which is why our new sports bra range contains 43 styles, so everyone can find the right fit for them,’ said a tweet from Adidas about the new range, launched in February. 

Agreed. And it was such a cool ad. Finally, a great deal of women could see themselves represented in advertising, a medium through which most of us have internalised the toxic beliefs around having ‘perfect breasts’ by virtue of featuring almost exclusively thin, toned white women with small – but not too small – breasts.