Kelly Brook has been busy this month. She has declared August 2010 to be her "naked month". And indeed it is. Her Playboy centrefold will be published, she is captured, naked, in a photo shoot for Love Magazine also out this month, her new movie Piranha 3D will premiere (in which she has a terrifying, naked, encounter with a piranha) and she has appeared naked in an ad which has been unveiled in Battersea. The campaign promotes Reebok's "EasyTone" trainers which allegedly tone the wearer's legs and bottom muscles while they walk. It should be noted that Brook is wearing said trainers in the ad and is therefore not totally naked. She has, not surprisingly, credited the product with preparing her for all the nakedness.

The Reebok ad has raised again the controversial question of whether titillating billboard ads can not only be offensive, but can also be a public nuisance, given their likely effect on drivers. So far, the ASA has not reported any complaints in response, in stark contrast to the YSL Opium ad featuring Sophie Dahl, and the Wonderbra ad which depicted a giant Eva Herzigova, naked but for her Wonderbra and impressive cleavage. Both those campaigns led to large numbers of complaints, particularly in the case of the YSL ad which attracted more complaints than any other in the ASA's history from consumers who considered it degrading and offensive to women.

How surprising therefore that the Reebok ad has been fairly uncontroversial. Does it depend on who is getting naked? Naked Kelly is quite a common sight this month (although perhaps not in Battersea) so we might be more likely to feel degraded, or crash into the car in front of us, next month. Or maybe as a consumer society we are just used to the fact that sex sells, and now find it really rather dull, at least on a billboard. Perhaps the ad would have been more controversial had it featured a naked 3D piranha - now that would be socially irresponsible.

Author: Alex McGurk is a Solicitor in the firm's Litigation Practice and is a member of the Advertising Group

23 August 2010