Trend retailer H&M has withdrawn an advert that includes faculty women after complaints that the marketing campaign inspired the sexualisation of under-age women.
The advert, launched in Australia, featured the slogan: “Make these heads flip in H&M’s Again to College trend” above a photograph of two women carrying grey H&M pinafore attire.
“We now have eliminated this advert,” an H&M spokesperson stated on Monday. “We’re deeply sorry for the offence this has brought on and we’re trying into how we current campaigns going ahead.”
The style retailer’s shares hit a two-month low, down 1.4% by 1540 GMT, underperforming friends.
Adverts
H&M’s rowback is the newest in a string of missteps by trend manufacturers resulting in adverts backfiring. In December, Zara pulled a marketing campaign that includes statues wrapped in white, after requires a boycott and protests over a perceived resemblance to photographs from the conflict in Gaza.