This is just the worst. Photo: I Love Ugly

Advertising: Objectifying women since the dawn of time.

This week, New Zealand men's clothing company I Love Ugly came under fire for a sexist holiday campaign in which fully-clothed male models wearing rings place their hands around a woman's naked breasts, buttocks and genitalia.

One image from the series, released on the company's Facebook page last week, features a man's jewellery-adorned hand covering a woman's vagina as she sits with her legs spread open for the camera.

Predictably, men and women quickly took to social media to condemn the adverts, to which the company tweeted:


"Mixed reviews about our latest ring campaign. Some love it, some hate it. If you're nervous about something, you're onto something good." That tweet and the campaign imagery have since been deleted.

As one person wrote in response:

"If you're nervous about something, it's probably because you know it's grossly offensive."

The company then responded further to the criticism by – wait for it – printing more terrible ads, this time showing a woman's hand on a man's naked torso.

Jewellery is one of those things you either love or hate on a man. We tried our best to rework something that makes a... Posted by I Love Ugly on Wednesday, 2 December 2015

I Love Ugly jewelry available now. #iloveugly pic.twitter.com/pHfHxgAzhC — I Love Ugly (@iloveugly) December 3, 2015

They have clearly missed the point entirely.

Hey @iloveugly, I want to support NZ brands but what were you thinking? Way to show women you respect them. Ugh. pic.twitter.com/LxW4A80gUN — Lizzie Marvelly (@LizzieMarvelly) December 2, 2015

Women are more than disembodied breasts to use as decoration. Maybe if your jewelry was any good you wouldn't need a distraction? @iloveugly — Frances Cook (@FrancesCook) December 2, 2015

if @iloveugly think they're revolutionary for sexually charging the female body to sell some rings, well then they're both idiots and sexist — david (@stamspo) December 1, 2015

"Covering a non-eroticised part of the male body ... A further demonstration of how the brand has no understanding of the power imbalance ingrained in society," wrote commenter Daniel Barrett on Facebook.

"You really don't get it, do you," wrote commenter Michael Stevens on Facebook. Commenter Maddy Pilmer added, "Exoticism doesn't do much to cover up misogyny."

The I Love Ugly adverts effectively reduce a woman to a sum of her parts. Her body becomes a prop and a backdrop for showcasing men's jewellery – her primary purpose nothing more than to be used as a stand upon which things are perched. You never see her face, effectively erasing her individuality, dehumanising her and adding another layer of sexual violability. All that matters is her body. And that in itself is misogyny.

I Love Ugly's attempt to equalise the field by depicting a naked man's torso, touched by a woman – as a form of role reversal – doesn't negate how offensive and shocking the original images are.

These adverts don't exist in a social and historical vacuum and we can't forget the context within which they operate. Not every depiction is equal. The images of the naked female figures contribute to and are coloured by a history and current system of oppression, repression, domination, violence, dehumanisation and degradation against women, whereas the image of the man is not.

This is something I Love Ugly has flat out failed to realise, but hopefully the vocal cohort on Twitter will help them understand.