Fashion

Rihanna's New Fragrance Ad Is Literally Rated R

by Tyler Atwood

Between her music and her boundary-breaking style, Rihanna has staked her claim as a provocateur. However, the singer's latest fragrance ad for her scent "Rogue" is so suggestive that the ad has been restricted in the U.K. After a disgruntled viewer saw the advertisement placed in a point of prominence on a pair of elevator doors at a popular local mall, Britain's Advertising Standards Authority stepped in to evaluate. The complaint asserted that Rihanna's ad was degrading to the female gender, being "overly sexual and demeaning to women", in addition to listing several other grievances with the image.

RiRi's audiences are, at this point, accustomed to seeing the singer in compromising, or at the very least, controversial, positions. After all, this is a woman whose "Pour It Up" video features the singer suggestively writhing in a shallow pool of water while singing about "strip clubs and dollar bills." However, this latest ad does push the bounds of what the average shopper is expecting to see when the elevator doors close. A nearly nude Rihanna clad only in stilettos is curled in a doorway with her legs propped up against an oversized bottle of Rogue. While anything truly scandalous is covered in the ad, it still doesn't exactly speak to the "position of power" which Rihanna's business partner Parlux Limited claims the image presents.

After much deliberation, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that despite their opinion that the "ad was unlikely to be demeaning to women or cause serious or widespread offense", the image will only be in restricted release from now on due to its potentially negative effects on impressionable young minds. Therefore, if the youths of the U.K. wish to get their daily dose of Rihanna's bawdy antics, they'll just have to look her up on YouTube.

Image: Twitter/RihannaRogue