Jewelry Ads Using Women’s Bodies As Props Generates Internet Ire

A holiday ad campaign from New Zealand jewelry brand I Love Ugly, which uses women's bodies as props, has the internet up in arms. In the photos, fully clothed men wearing the brand's rings on their hands are covering and cupping women's breasts and butts. In one photo, a man's hand is covering a woman's vagina as she sits with her legs spread for the camera. "Jewellery is one of those things you either love or hate on a man," reads a Facebook post from I Love Ugly that features one of the images. "We tried our best to rework something that makes a lot of males a little uneasy and turn it into something the dubious could potentially see themselves wearing." The New Zealand company has come under fire since launching the campaign. See the full spectrum of photos, originally posted by High Snobiety on December 1. Two additional photos can be found on I Love Ugly's Facebook page. People were quick to call out the company for its ridiculous and offensive campaign on Twitter and Facebook.

I Love Ugly's response to the backlash was to tweet: "Mixed reviews about our latest ring campaign. Some love it, some hate it. If you're nervous about something. You're onto something good." As noted by The Huffington Post, I Love Ugly has since deleted that tweet. In an attempt to move forward with a modified version of the campaign, I Love Ugly has shared images featuring a white woman's hands over a naked Black male torso. However, critics were quick to call out the fact that I Love Ugly's team completely missed the point of their original complaints with this campaign, as well.

"Covering a non-eroticised part of the male body ... A further demonstration of how the brand has no understanding of the power imbalance ingrained in society," wrote commenter Daniel Barrett on Facebook. "Quit objectifying bodies, male or female. We're more than sexual objects. We humans to be equal. We're not meant to be strip and used sexually to sale your ugly (you named it) jewelry," wrote Ann Auton. "You really don't get it, do you," wrote commenter Michael Stevens on Facebook. Commenter Maddy Pilmer added, "Exoticism doesn't do much to cover up misogyny." I Love Ugly did not reply to Refinery29 for comment at press time.