FASHION retailer Zara has pulled an advert from its website featuring mannequins with missing limbs and statues wrapped in white following accusations it resembled scenes in Gaza.
Critics said the advertising campaign for the Atelier line resembled photos of corpses in white shrouds in the Middle East.
On Tuesday, the retailer issued a statement saying it regretted the “misunderstanding” and removed six photos promoting the campaign from its Instagram page.
In a post on Instagram, Zara said: “Unfortunately, some customers felt offended by these images, which have now been removed, and saw them in something far from what was intended when they were created.”
Inditex, the company which owns Zara, said the campaign in question was originally conceived in July and the photos were taken in September, before Hamas’s attack on October 7 and the Israeli strikes on Gaza which followed.
The Instagram account had been flooded with tens of thousands of comments about the photos, many with Palestinian flags, while #BoycottZara had started trending on X.
In one of the photos a model is carrying a mannequin wrapped in white while in another a bust lies on the floor and another features a mannequin with no arms.
The Advertising Standards Authority has received 110 complaints about the campaign.
“Complainants argue that the image references the current Israel-Hamas conflict and is offensive,” a spokesperson told Sky News.
The photos of the Atelier collection, which had featured on Zara’s online store homepage on Monday morning, were no longer visible on the website or app by Monday lunchtime.
Meanwhile a link on the UK website to Zara Atelier led to a page showcasing last year’s collection.
