Temu, an online retail giant, has been reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for an advertisement that sexualised a young girl. The contentious advert displayed a girl, estimated to be between eight and eleven years old, wearing a bikini and striking a pose that the ASA deemed excessively mature for her age. The ASA also prohibited four additional advertisements for their sexual imagery and their objectification of women.
Temu, acknowledging the breach of their marketing policy by the advertisement featuring the child, pledged not to repeat the depiction. While the company contested the remaining objections, the ASA maintained its stance and ruled all the advertisements unfitting.
Owned by China, Temu operates as an online marketplace where vendors can exhibit images of their merchandise. The platform’s guidelines explicitly forbid the use of lewd, obscene or harassing images. Since its advent in the United Kingdom in 2023, Temu has amassed popularity for its all-encompassing product range marketed at competitive prices.
In its defence, the company informed the ASA that it houses over a million images on its Google Ads account. However, it does not have the authority to regulate the specific merchandise being promoted or their display location.
The contentious images that attracted complaints comprised of women’s busts adorned in low-neck dresses, a grey jockstrap, and padded cycling undergarments. The ASA’s objection to the jockstrap was due to its explicit emphasis on the genitalia, while the cycling shorts were deemed inappropriate as they resembled undergarments with the rear portion removed.
Additional problematic images included the depiction of dresses without the models’ faces, which the ASA argued objectified women as sexual objects. Also, the facial roller and balloon ties images, when displayed in conjunction with the other adverts, were considered sexually suggestive due to their phallic shape.
These adverts were displayed across various platforms, including a local news website, a chess website, a translation website, and a puzzle application. Temu contended that the images of the models without their faces were not intended to objectify women, and other retail platforms used similar images. The company also defended the images of the other objects as accurate depictions of the merchandise for sale. In response to this controversy, the chess and news websites announced their decision to cease advertising Temu products.
The ASA has admonished Temu to ensure its future advertisements demonstrate a sense of responsibility towards consumers and society. The regulatory body has also advised the company against depicting under-18s in a sexual manner and to target advertisements responsibly.
