14 DAY TRIAL // An ad for Marc Jacobs' Oh! Lola fragrance with Dakota Fanning has been banned in the UK after complaints were filed with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The agency has ruled it is too provocative.
The ad shows 17-year-old Dakota sitting with an oversized bottle of the fragrance in her lap. She's styled to appear younger than her age, and the flower on the perfume bottle has been interpreted as her virginity.
Several complaints were filed with the ASA about the content and the implications of the ad, made more apparent when the designer said that the inspiration for the fragrance and the photo came from Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.
Jacobs said that he was inspired by the book's controversial character in the creation of the perfume and that he believed Dakota would be perfect for the ad because she could be innocent and sweet to embody its essence.
The ASA has ruled that the ad is too provocative, the Daily Mail informs.
“We noted that the model was holding up the perfume bottle which rested in her lap between her legs and we considered that its position was sexually provocative,” the agency says in a statement.
“We understood the model was 17 years old but we considered she looked under the age of 16,” it further says.
“The length of her dress, her leg and position of the perfume bottle” implied more than Marc Jacobs and maker Coty were willing to admit: Dakota wasn't posing as a character inspired by Lolita, but as Lolita herself.
“We therefore concluded that the ad was irresponsible and was likely to cause serious offense,” the ASA says of the ruling.
Coty, which makes Oh! Lola, insists that there was no such suggestion in the photo, therefore the ban doesn't make sense.
“It did not show any private body parts. The giant perfume bottle was provoking but not indecent,” Coty says in a statement cited by the same British publication.