Zara Slammed for Hypocritical "Love Your Curves" Campaign
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Zara Slammed for Hypocritical "Love Your Curves" Campaign

Over the past few years, body positivity has come into its own, whether we're talking advocate Ashley Graham's prominence--covering Sports Illustrated Swimsuit editions, judging America's Next Top Model, or releasing her own realistic doll--or art projects celebrating diverse body types or Lena Dunham demanding un-retouched magazine covers.

And, true to capitalist form, many companies have co-opted the movement for their own ads (think Dove's ongoing ads and Aerie's real girl campaign). And where corporations try to harness empowerment to make money, there are inevitably embarrassing fuck-ups. The most recent one comes courtesy of Zara, who've put out an ad for their jeans that proclaims "Love your curves" over a photo of two remarkably, uh, non-curvy women.

Spotted by an Irish radio host who posted it on her Twitter, the image naturally got the internet outrage machine fired up. Twitter was quick to point out the wide gap between message and execution (and come up with some pretty good Zara burns).

As the original poster of the ad took care to make clear, this is nothing to do with the innocent models hired for the spot. They're just the unwitting participants of a poorly thought-through campaign.

Zara should be used to dealing with backlash by now--last year they came under heavy scrutiny for stealing the art and designs of small independent artists and refusing to compensate them when they were caught. The company's Twitter has remained mum on the subject thus far.

[h/t Teen Vogue]

Splash photo via Twitter.

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