A school-age looking model donning a thong bodysuit was deemed 'too sexy' for advertising bosses, who banned the American Apparel advert leaving the firm reeling from yet another advertising storm.
The trendy store had a series of adverts banned in 2012 after models were pictured wearing the clothing while posing in a sexually provocative manner.
And more recently American Apparel had a controversial advertising campaign banned in September last year when the store - which has 270 shops in the world -was accused of ‘sexualising school-age girls’.
The latest storm now concerns a model wearing a thong bodysuit, priced at £30 and patterned with lipstick prints.
Complaints were submitted by concerned viewers who thought the model looked under the age of 16, leading for the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) to ban the advert.
In the ruling the ASA said: "We considered the model had a youthful appearance and that some consumers were likely to regard her as being younger than 16 years of age.
"The model was shown looking back at the camera over her shoulder with her buttocks visible.
"We considered that readers were likely to interpret the model's expression and pose as being sexual in nature.
"In conjunction with the youthful appearance of the model, we considered the ad could be seen to sexualise a child.
"We therefore concluded that the ad was irresponsible and was likely to cause serious offence.
"The ad must not appear again in its current form.
"We told American Apparel (UK) Ltd to ensure future ads did not include images that inappropriately sexualised young women or were likely to cause serious offence."
Responding, American Apparel said that the model was aged 20.
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