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Lane Bryant Body-Positive Ad Banned For Being ‘Too Sexy,’ Or Was It Because Of Breastfeeding? [Video]

By Benjamin Simon
Published on: 10:23 PST, Mar 11, 2016

The plus-sized clothing retailer Lane Bryant recently released an ad advocating for body-positivity and plus-sized pride, but it was promptly banned by networks for showing too much skin.

According to Refinery29, both ABC and NBC chose not to air the Lane Bryant 30-second spot, seemingly due to the nude and semi-nude models who appear in the commercial. These models include Ashley Graham, Precious Lee, and Tara Lynn.

Since the Lane Bryant ad was banned, many people across the internet have accused the networks of restricting the commercial not due to the nudity, but the size of the women who appear nude. TMZ pointed out that the ad shows as much skin as other commercials by companies like Victoria Secret, but those ads are freely shown on the air.

“I don’t think these models are any more nude than any other models we’ve seen on TV,” said a Lane Bryant representative. “This was not a hard-hitting conversation about body positivity. This was a playful way to engage our women and all women.”

Nonetheless, NBC informed Lane Bryant that they would need to make a “minor edit to comply with broadcast indecency guidelines.”

If the network was not referring to the nudity itself, they could have been referring to a brief moment in the Lane Bryant ad which shows model Tara Lynn breastfeeding. This is a hotly debated topic as of late, with some claiming breastfeeding should be done in private or else risk public indecency, while others point out that breastfeeding is both natural and not innately sexual.

The backlash caused by the ban serves to prove the message Lane Bryant claims they were trying to get across, which is that plus-sized women should be more freely accepted and/or be considered as beautiful as women shown in Victoria’s Secret ads. It’s one thing for women to be proud of their own body, but it’s an entirely different effort to get the mainstream public to accept women of all shapes and sizes.

Model Precious Lee even says at the end of the commercial, “This body is made for proving them wrong.”

Lane Bryant has actually implicitly criticized Victoria’s Secret ads in the past, which you can read more about here.

Self Magazine cites Lane Bryant as one of many companies working hard to show a more diverse range of body types in advertising, joining the body-positive movement that has been gaining speed in recent years.

“We want our target customer, the industry, and the world in general to conclude that it’s obvious, it’s self-evident, that all women are beautiful and should be seen and celebrated,” said Linda Heasley, CEO of Lane Bryant. “Today’s This Body campaign cites the conversation as overdue, unavoidable, and a rapidly progressing cultural (r)evolution, and allows Lane Bryant to continue to be [a] platform for shifting perception.”

The controversy surrounding the commercial has garnered enough attention that Lane Bryant has considered resubmitting the spot to the networks that banned it. NBC made it very clear that they did not reject the Lane Bryant ad in its entirety, and would gladly air the commercial if the company made that aforementioned “minor edit.” No media outlets seem to have determined what that edit might be.

It’s unclear if that requested change is a deal-breaker for Lane Bryant or if they’d be willing to compromise for the sake of getting the commercial up and running. Even if the networks continue to refuse the ad, Lane Bryant has already enjoyed a fair bit of publicity simply due to the controversy.

“Clearly what is too much for some does not hold true for others,” said Lane Bryant’s chief marketing officer, Brian Beitler. “It is a true celebration of women of all sizes doing what makes them feel beautiful,whether it’s breast feeding their newborn, flaunting their bodies the way they see fit, or breaking down barriers all around and simply being who they are or want to be!”

What do you think? Should Lane Bryant be allowed to air the advertisement?

[Photo by Paul Sakuma/AP Images]

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