A Zara advert featuring mannequins with missing limbs and statues wrapped in white has been pulled from its website and social media after pro-Palestinian activists called for a boycott of the fashion brand.
Critics said the advertising campaign resembled photos of corpses in white shrouds in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Zara said it regretted the “misunderstanding” and removed six photos promoting the campaign from its Instagram page.
“Unfortunately, some customers felt offended by these images, which have now been removed, and saw in them something far from what was intended when they were created,” Zara said in a post on its Instagram account.
Inditex, which owns Zara, said the campaign was conceived in July and the photos were taken in September, before Hamas’s attack on 7 October and the Israeli strikes on Gaza that followed.
Zara’s Instagram account was flooded with tens of thousands of comments about the photos, many with Palestinian flags, and #BoycottZara was trending on X.
In one of the photos a model is carrying a mannequin wrapped in white, 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 advertising campaign.
“Complainants argue that the imagery references the current Israel-Hamas conflict and is offensive,” a spokesperson told Sky News.
The ASA is not currently investigating the ads but said it is reviewing the complaints.
The photos appear to show an artist studio with ladders, packing materials, wooden crates and cranes, and assistants wearing overalls.
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The photos of the Atelier collection, which featured on Zara’s online store homepage on Monday morning, were no longer visible on the website or on its app by Monday lunchtime.
A link on the UK website to Zara Atelier led to a page showcasing last year’s collection.
Zara said at the collection’s launch on 7 December that it was inspired by men’s tailoring from past centuries.
