‘Lolita’ perfume ad for Marc Jacobs banned for ‘sexualising children’

Marc Jacobs’ Lolita fragrance advertisement featuring teen actress Dakota Fanning has been banned on the basis it appeared to ‘sexualise a child’. The actress is 17, but she looked younger in the magazine ad for ‘Oh Lola!’, where she was sitting on the floor with the perfume bottle between her thighs.

The scent is the creation of U.S fashion designer Marc Jacobs, who said he chose the young actress because she could be a ‘contemporary Lolita’. The Advertising Standard Authority said the ‘Oh, Lola!’ advertisement showed Dakota Fanning, sitting on the floor, alone, wearing a pale coloured thigh length dress.

‘We noted that the model was holding up the perfume bottle which rested in her lap between her legs and we considered that its position was sexually provocative,’ it said.