{"id":10714,"date":"2023-12-12T14:16:08","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T14:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=10714"},"modified":"2023-12-12T14:16:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T14:16:08","slug":"zara-issues-apology-withdraws-controversial-ad-campaign-amid-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2023\/12\/12\/zara-issues-apology-withdraws-controversial-ad-campaign-amid-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Zara Issues Apology, Withdraws Controversial Ad Campaign Amid Criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zara has expressed regret for what it calls a &#8220;misunderstanding&#8221; surrounding an advertising campaign that drew criticism for using images resembling those from the Israel-Gaza war. Following days of backlash on social media and complaints to the UK&#8217;s advertising watchdog, Zara decided to pull the remaining pictures.<\/p>\n<p>The campaign, titled &#8220;The Jacket,&#8221; featured images of a model against backgrounds of cracked stones, damaged statues, and broken plasterboard. One photo showed a model holding a mannequin wrapped in white plastic. Some social media users claimed the images bore a resemblance to scenes from Gaza, prompting calls for a boycott of the fashion retailer.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the controversy, Zara clarified that the campaign aimed to showcase craftmade garments in an artistic context. The company stated that the images portrayed unfinished sculptures in a sculptor&#8217;s studio and were conceived and photographed months before the conflict in Gaza escalated.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Zara&#8217;s explanation, the campaign led to 110 complaints to the UK&#8217;s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which is currently reviewing the case. The ASA spokesperson noted that complainants argue the imagery references the Israel-Hamas conflict and deems it offensive.<\/p>\n<p>Zara issued a statement expressing regret for any misunderstanding, stating, &#8220;Zara regrets that misunderstanding and we reaffirm our deep respect towards everyone.&#8221; This incident comes after another retailer, M&amp;S, faced criticism for an Instagram photo that some interpreted as referencing the Israel-Hamas conflict. M&amp;S apologized and removed the post following feedback.<\/p>\n<p>Zara&#8217;s &#8220;The Jacket&#8221; campaign had initially been described as an exercise in concentrated design, aiming to showcase the finest aspects of the brand&#8217;s creative and manufacturing capabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zara has expressed regret for what it calls a &#8220;misunderstanding&#8221; surrounding an advertising campaign that drew criticism for using images resembling those from the Israel-Gaza war. Following days of backlash on social media and complaints to the UK&#8217;s advertising watchdog, Zara decided to pull the remaining pictures. The campaign, titled &#8220;The Jacket,&#8221; featured images of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":10717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10714"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10740,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10714\/revisions\/10740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}