PrettyLittleThing's YouTube pre-roll built four scenes toward maximum sexualisation

On 29 October 2019, fast-fashion retailer PrettyLittleThing ran a pre-roll YouTube ad opening with a model in black vinyl chaps-style knickers, followed by a model in a transparent mesh bodysuit lying with a neon bar between her legs, then a woman in a bikini top holding the bar behind her shoulders in what the ASA called a pose that accentuated her breasts, and finally a woman crouched with legs apart in chaps revealing string bikini bottoms.

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority found that no single scene alone might have crossed the line, but the cumulative effect of the sequence presented the products in an overly sexualised way that invited viewers to see the women as sexual objects.

The ASA ruled the ad irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence, in breach of CAP rules on responsibility to consumers and society, and ordered it not to run again in its current form.