UK Bans YSL Ad for Belle d’Opium for ‘Simulating Drug Use’

An ad for Yves Saint Laurent’s Belle d’Opium has just been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK following complaints that it may be interpreted as “simulating drug use.”

The ad, starring YSL muse Mélanie Thierry and directed by Romain Gavras, shows a woman dancing and wriggling on the floor.

The imagery, according to YSL, is meant to suggest that the fragrance is like the gorgeous model: intoxicating and addictive, the Guardian reports.

However, the 13 complaints filed with the ASA claim that one would not be entirely mistaken if one assumed that the woman is acting as if she just injected herself with opiates, a presumption the ASA agreed with.

“The campaign for Belle d’Opium featured a woman who ran her finger along the inside of her forearm and in a second scene her ‘body seized upwards while lying on the floor’,” the Guardian writes.

It was precisely these two scenes that got ASA to say the ad was irresponsible and offensive, consequently, to ban it.

“Trading company YSL Beaute said that the Opium fragrance had been a registered trademark in the UK since 1977 and the spin-off, Belle d’Opium, was about a woman that was ‘addictive and seduced the viewer to become this addiction’,” the same media outlet informs.

“The company said that it was a responsible advertiser and did not intend to use drug imagery in the ad and that consumer research had shown that viewers had not interpreted it in that way,” the Guardian notes.

With all that, the ASA remained unmoved: the way Thierry moves her finger down her forearm could suggest that she’s injecting herself with drugs. Hence, the “simulation of drug use.”

“The ASA said that the image of the finger running down the woman’s arm ‘could be seen to simulate the injection of opiates into the body.’ In addition the later scene, which included the woman writhing on the floor, could be seen to ‘simulate the effect of drugs on the body’,” says the Guardian.

Below is the Yves Saint Laurent ad in question. See for yourself and judge.