By Zilber
H&M pulled an ad for school uniforms that featured two young schoolgirls with the tag line “make those heads turn” after being accused of “promoting pedophilia.”
The $29.99 school dresses from the Swedish retailer were part of a sponsored ad on social media in Australia.
The promo shows two young girls who appear to be no older than 12 years of age wearing matching school uniforms that consist of white shirts, dark gray pinafores and pink book bags.
The girls are wearing the uniforms while posing against the backdrop of what appears to be a school bus decked out in pink decor.
“Make those heads turn in H&M’s Back to School fashion,” the ad reads.
H&M was blasted on social media for sexualizing the girls, leading the company to yank the ad over the weekend.
“This ad has been removed,” the company wrote on its official X account.
“We are deeply sorry for the offense this has caused and will look into how we present campaigns going forward.”
Melinda Tankard Reist, an Australian media commentator who opines on feminism, called out the retailer after noticing the ad on Facebook.
“What is your intention with this sponsored Facebook ad?” Tankard Reist wrote on her X social media account.
“Little schoolgirls generally don’t want to ‘turn heads’,” the author added.
Tankard Reist urged H&M to “have a word to your marketing team and come up with something that doesn’t draw attention to prepubescent girls already struggling to thrive in a culture that values ‘lookism’ as an aspirational goal.”
Others on social media agreed with the author. One X commenter accused H&M of “promoting pedophilia.”
“This is absolutely creepy. Take it down,” another X user wrote.
Another commenter on X wrote: “Stop objectifying and sexualizing little girls, these models look no more than SIX YEARS OLD. Take it down.”
