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Knife-wielding models in bad taste? In a story that got picked up all over the world overnight, Dolce & Gabbana has courted controversy by running a print ad featuring knife-wielding models. (Sorry our reproduction of the ad isn’t so great, but it’s the only one we could find.) According to this AP story, the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority ruled that D&G "acted irresponsibly and breached standards of good taste in publishing the ads" (Ya think?!) "which showed male models waving knives while surrounded by glamorous women models …” The best part, though, is the unrepentant response by D&G, which said that, although the ads ran globally, only the prudes in Britain complained, and furthermore, the ad was “highly stylized and intended to be an iconic representation of the Napoleonic period of art." Oh, so it’s art. Forgive our naivete! In the meantime, if you’ve got a moment to swing by D&G’s site, take a look at the slide show featuring the baby in the Plexiglas box. (It'll take a moment to load, but you'll need that time to gather your thoughts.) I think it's meant to represent, wait … it’s coming to me … a baby in a Plexiglas box. —Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

January 11, 2007 | Permalink

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Comments

First of all, the British are NUTS to have such a thing as an "U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority." I guess they enjoy having a big brother telling them which ads they can enjoy. I am sick of political correctness, sick of it. Sick of sensitivity, sick of so-called "social responsability." I don't get paid to be "socially responsible," or to make the world a better place, or to promote the anti-gun/anti-knife agendas of leftwing freedom hating organizations.

Whatever, someday all ads will be boring PC crap.

Posted by: Jerry | Jan 11, 2007 12:50:12 PM

We don't need an ASA here, we have clients and Christian groups for that.

Posted by: yikes | Jan 11, 2007 4:19:57 PM

Easy Jerry!!!

Posted by: Business for sale | Jan 11, 2007 5:49:03 PM

Sorry boys, but it angers me how the ASA can destroy creative work.

Posted by: Jerry | Jan 12, 2007 2:13:27 PM

Dolce's been running ads like this for about a year in magazines (see Esquire). Don't see what all the fuss is about, or how it's in bad taste.

Posted by: Leftwing Freedom Hater | Jan 12, 2007 7:58:32 PM

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