Lane Bryant, maker of attractive clothing in larger sizes, complained that TV networks have a double standard when it comes to breasts. Skinny super-models with outsized boobs are fine, but real women sporting real cleavage? Not so much.
According to Adweek,
Lane Bryant said that ABC "restricted our airtime" and refused to air the spot during Dancing With the Stars, while Fox "demanded excessive re-edits and rebuffed it three times before relenting to air it during the final 10 minutes of American Idol, but only after we threatened to pull the ad buy."
The problem? The model's cleavage, which can be seen on a screen shot in a post at Zimbio. (Or, you can watch the totally safe-for-work video here.)
The amount of breast doesn't seem to be, proportionately, any more than gets exposed in those Victoria's Secret ads. Or with the costumes on Dancing with the Stars, for that matter; those outfits leave very little to the imagination. The difference is, this model's breasts look … soft. These breasts are obviously real. And there's the rub.
It seems to be okay for bionic babes with fake breasts to expose their flesh, but truly womanly curves are taboo.
Elisabeth Squires, author of Boobs, a Guide to Your Girls (Seal 2007), wonders whether the networks objected not so much to the sight of those breasts as to the idea of a woman meeting a man for lunch in her underwear. On the other hand, the nets don't seem to have a problem with Viagra commercials.
Squires points out that the Lane Bryant model's breasts are closer to the normal size — and that's especially true if you look at women over 45. "Maybe the ad would be okay if we were asking a less endowed women to purchase a pair of breast implants. Women with larger breasts cannot attain a smaller breast size short of surgery; so if you don't expose the public to bigger breasts anywhere (except via the porn industry), you make the average woman feel as if she is abnormal."
Meanwhile, Lane Bryant is teasing us that its new series of ads, premiering on American Idol on April 27, are, "So hot, so sexy, you won't believe your eyes!"
Kudos to Lane Bryant for celebrating real women's real curves.