In a bold move the Australian Advertising Standards Board has has rejected five complaints about an ad for Marc Jacobs’ Oh, Lola! perfume, which features 17-year-old actress Dakota Fanning and references the novel Lolita, the story of a middle-aged man’s sexually obsessive relationship with the young daughter of his landlady. Vladimir Nabakov wrote Lolita in 1955 and at the time a respected British reviewer called it “the filthiest book I have ever read” and “sheer unrestrained pornography.”
Marc Jacobs was embroiled in major controversy earlier this month when one of its magazine commercials was banned for appearing to “sexualise a child.”
The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) condemned the advert – which featured 17-year-old Dakota Fanning sitting on the floor in a pale-colored thigh-length dress with an Oh Lola perfume bottle between her thighs – describing it as “sexually provocative.”
Despite the ad being banned in the UK for sexual representation of children, the Aussie board found the ad to be acceptable because Ms Fanning was 17. The board found the ad ”was not an image that sexualises young women.”
I guess in Australia women of 17 are not considered ‘young women.’
Stay up-to-date with us! Follow us on TWITTER, like us on FACEBOOK , subscribe to our RSS FEED or E-MAIL us! We love hearing from you!
