Film Fan: Off-Topic: Adidas Sports Bras

Thursday 12 May 2022

Off-Topic: Adidas Sports Bras

Today I read that in Britain there's a partial ban on the new Adidas advertising campaign to promote its sports bras. The problem is that the advertisements consist of naked breasts, accompanied by the text "The reasons we didn't make just one sports bra". The purpose of the advertising campaign is to show that women have different breast sizes and shapes, so Adidas has designed a large variety of sports bras.

The campaign was announced on Twitter on 9th February with the following text and photo:

There were complaints to Twitter about the post, claiming it was objectifying women, but Twitter deemed the images weren't in breach of its terms of service. Far from it. The photos aren't intended to incite lust, they're intended to give women confidence in themselves. The women shown in typical glamour magazines and on websites have perfect breasts, which makes many women feel ashamed. They think that their breasts are too small, too big or too saggy. Now they could see 25 photos of normal breasts, and they can look through them until they see a pair and say "Look! She has breasts like me!"

But Twitter was just the beginning. Posters were hung on billboards and other public places.

(As always, click on the photos to enlarge them).

This is where the British Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) stepped in. The ASA claimed that the posters can be offensive, especially to children. This is ridiculous. Naked breasts are one of the first things every new-born child sees. The real problem isn't for children, it's for adults who are either prudish or hypocritical. The two characteristics usually go together.

What I mean by hypocritical is that many men like to look at naked breasts in private, but they don't want to be confronted with them in public places. They like to objectify women and their breasts in the privacy of their own home, but they're ashamed of seeing them in public, because it puts their own lusts on display. Apart from this, men might not like some of the breasts in the posters. By disliking breasts they find imperfect they're guilty of objectifying women.

Women aren't perfect. Neither are men, so they have no right to judge. The whole point of the Adidas advertising campaign is to help women accept themselves.

Women come in all shapes and sizes, and so do their breasts. Adidas has sports bras for everyone. I don't want to show you all 43 styles. I've just picked out three as examples.

Adidas TLRD Move Training High Support Bra