Popular clothing brand Robinson Webster (Holdings) Ltd t/a Jigsaw, issued a marketing email to its customers entitled “These boots were made for walking”. The email contained an image of a woman wearing a jumper and boots but only underwear on her bottom half. The ASA received complaints which were made on the basis that the image used sexualised women and was therefore offensive and irresponsible. The ASA upheld the complaint. In particular, it considered that, when separated from Jigsaw’s wider campaign (relating to a celebration of nature and freedom), the image used did objectify women and was likely to cause serious offence to members of the public. Jigsaw agreed that the image used in isolation could be perceived in a different way to that which was intended, and voluntarily removed the image from any future marketing campaign on this basis.
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