UPDATED: Ralph Lauren Wants Ban on Blog Coverage of Skinny Models in His Ads; Apologizes
Ralph Lauren has embarrassed himself by sending cease-and-desist letters to two blogs, Boing Boing and PhotoShop Disasters, which posted this ad showing a ludicrously thin model with a gigantic head. (If you click on the image, the enlarged version shows how disproportionate the model’s body is.)
Boing Boing has declined to remove the image, and instead began mocking Lauren for his ineptitude. Posting images of ads for news, comment or criticism is a classic “fair use” exception to copyright law, Boing Boing notes.
UPDATE:Lauren has offered an apology for the ad but not for the letters:
After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman’s body. We have addressed the problem and going forward will take every precaution to ensure that the caliber of our artwork represents our brand appropriately.
The image has since disappeared from PsD, but the blog notes that its host, BlogSpot, does that automatically whenever it gets one of those letters.
And now Lauren finds himself the laughing stock of the internet. Check out the scorn here and here and here.
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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