La Perla Removes Mannequin With Protruding Rib After Photo Goes Viral Online
Users all over Twitter expressed their outrage after seeing a photo of La Perla, a high-end lingerie store, display one of its mannequins with protruding ribs while being scantily clad in a red bikini. The original photo was taken by Michael Rudoy, who spotted the mannequin at the New York store. After posting the picture on his Twitter account, @mrudoy, the photo went viral.
People all over the Internet started calling the mannequin too thin and said this would send a bad message to people with eating disorders. “TERRIBLE!!! How does #LaPerla think ribs on a mannequin is ok?!” the Alliance for Eating Disorder Awareness tweeted. Even news outlet The Independent, showed its disdain for the photo, tweeting: “If beauty comes in all sizes, why does fashion force feed us skinny?”
An organizer of “Truth in Advertising Act,” Seth Matlins, responded by saying it was a “horrible mannequin.” He signed his tweet with the hashtag #notbuyingit. The Truth in Advertising Act (H.R. 4341) was introduced in 2014 as a way of combating false and misleading advertising. According to Congress.gov, for this pending bill, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would have to submit a report to Congress that would include, “(1) a strategy to reduce the use, in advertising and other media for the promotion of commercial products, of images that have been altered to materially change the physical characteristics of the faces and bodies of the individuals depicted; and (2) recommendations for a risk-based regulatory framework with respect to such use.”
After all this backlash, La Perla released a statement saying they would not use the mannequins in any other store: “We are in the process of redesigning all La Perla stores with a new concept image and the mannequins that are currently displayed in our US stores will no longer be used. We appreciate and value everyone’s comments, thank you for bringing this to our attention.”
This is not the first time that a company has received backlash for its poor judgment. This past March, Target received heat after one of its bathing suit ads had a clear case of photoshop fail. The model was clearly altered to make her thighs appear thinner, and the result was an exaggerated camel toe effect.
Despite La Perla and Target making efforts to rectify these blunders, the harm is done — and surely affects their brand.