Below is the article published today in the Evening Standard... I'm very grateful to the Evening Standard for the half page and prominence of the article.
Tory MP tables Bill to scale down ‘hardcore’ lingerie posters on London's buses
Sexy lingerie ads should be banned from London Buses, a Tory MP urged today as she warned that increasing sexualisation of society was damaging children.
Nadine Dorries tabled a 10-minute rule Bill in the House of Commons that seeks to restrict the use of graphic and erotic images in advertising.
Ms Dorries singled out a recent Emporio Armani ad campaign on buses featuring film star Megan Fox, and other advertising campaigns with three young models posing in lingerie.
They are part of a wider move in recent months to use the 14ft billboard space on the capital's buses for eye-catching underwear adverts. H&M’s Sonia Rykiel range is also plastered over buses on key routes.
Ms Dorries said it was the sheer size of the ads that she objected to: "You can't help but see these. On the Armani ads you can barely see the name of the company. Everyone knows I'm not a politically correct feminist, but this is part of a wider trend towards the objectification of women."
Her Bill, which also criticises the way "lads' mags" are at child-eye level in newsagents, is to be introduced formally to Parliament on 31 March.
The MP for Mid Bedfordshire decided to act after accompanying a friend's young daughter around London and realising the sort of images girls are confronted with on a daily basis.
She said: "It is becoming more hardcore and shocking. Since when did it become acceptable to have larger-than-life posters of scantily clad women moving up and down every street?"
David Cameron has warned that agencies which fail to act responsibly in their use of sexualised adverts would be barred from government contracts.
Transport for London last year banned a Royal Academy poster depicting a nude by Lucas Cranach.
Armani would not comment on Ms Dorries's complaints