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This Sultry Cara Delevingne Billboard Has Been Banned Near London Schools

Tom Ford Beauty is defending its fragrance ad as 'sensuous, not sexual.'

Fashion icon Tom Ford’s brand is commonly associated with sex appeal, so when its latest fragrance ad featuring a nude (but strategically covered) Cara Delevingne appeared, we were all, *shrug.*

But after the ad was lodged on a giant billboard in the heart of East London, several complaints poured in from people who deemed it “inappropriate” and “degrading,” according to Harper’s Bazaar U.K..

The ad — for Ford’s fragrance Black Orchid — features Delevingne partially submerged in a bath of flower petals, clutching to a bottle of perfume. It’s definitely sultry, but not necessarily shocking, especially since it’s already run in several print magazines.

Critics wanted the ad banned altogether, but the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) came down with the final ruling, saying it was sexually explicit but not sexually suggestive. They ruled it was unlikely to “cause serious offense” and didn’t “degrade or objectify women.” The watchdog did, however, place a ban on it appearing within 100 meters from any school.

Tom Ford Beauty defended the ad as “sensuous, not sexual,” and added that the “hip urban” neighborhood where it’s displayed is already home to aesthetically similar advertisements.

For Delevingne’s part, we’re guessing she’ll simply shrug this one off. Then again, maybe she’ll pull a Margo Roth Spiegelman and shave off the naysayers’ eyebrows in the middle of the night.

In any case, we can all agree this has just been a rough week for fashion billboards, amirite?

Do you think the Tom Ford ad is too risqué to be displayed in public? Sound off with your opinion below!

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