Young censor 'shocked' by half naked General Pants model

By Sam Hall
Updated November 6 2012 - 2:09am, first published April 29 2011 - 10:51am
A young Illawarra shopper was "shocked" by the latest fashion campaign in General Pants' shop window.
A young Illawarra shopper was "shocked" by the latest fashion campaign in General Pants' shop window.
The prominent image of a half naked model with only duct tape in the Wollongong Central store front.
The prominent image of a half naked model with only duct tape in the Wollongong Central store front.

Retail clothing chain General Pants Co. has been forced to make alterations to a brazen new national advertising campaign following stiff opposition from a young Illawarra resident.Eleven-year-old Remy Lebreton-Kavanagh claims he was left "shocked" earlier this week after catching a glimpse of the new Sex! & Fashion campaign in the retailer's Wollongong Central store front.According to his mother Cassandra Kavanagh, the prominent image of a half naked model with only duct tape covering her breasts became so disturbing for Remy that he decided to pen a letter to the retailer's general manager Craig King.Launched on Wednesday, the new campaign advertises the "Ksubi capsule collection of exclusive prints, washes and colours across denim and fashion".General Pants Co. division manager Jacquie Vuleta said advertising for the new collection had only received the one complaint nationally."If you look at their previous campaigns, you can see that Ksubi have always been a very polarised brand," she said."They once sent rats down the catwalk during fashion week ... they've always been a very bold brand and try to make a statement with the campaigns that they do."We did not go into this campaign to offend anybody, it was meant to be a play on the fashion industry and the fact there is sex in fashion."Remy believes the campaign is too explicit for children and should not feature so prominently in General Pants Co stores."I think this is wrong, they should be able to provide an answer," he said."If they create a poster that children can see just by visiting their local mall they should be answerable."Ms Vuleta said the company did not normally run its campaigns past the national advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Bureau."We didn't present this ad to the (Bureau), no ... we wouldn't normally be putting any thing up that would get rejected by the (Bureau), we would hope," she said.Following Remy's complaint, General Pants Co has agreed to begin making moderations to campaign images across its stores nationally."We're applying a black banner to the main image of the campaign that will have the word 'Censored' written across the front of it. The banner will cover from the neck down," Ms Vuleta said."Those changes will start to be made from Tuesday onwards."

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