No nipples for women’s magazine
The NZ Woman’s Weekly has refused to run a breast cancer awareness advertisement showing a Kiwi woman topless after a mastectomy.
Editor Alice O’Connell said the magazine supported the campaign but readers might not accept the advertisement, which shows North Shore woman Anete Smith’s reconstructed breasts and nipples.
The 51-year-old recreated a pose from Rubens’ Samson and Delilah to raise awareness of breast cancer.
Smith, who was in her 30s when she was diagnosed with the disease, took part in the campaign to encourage women of all ages to check their breasts regularly.
The Hospice Shop manager was perplexed by the magazine’s decision, pointing out the photo wasn’t salacious.
‘‘I find it a little strange to be honest, I’m hardly a page 3 girl.
‘‘I don’t know why they wouldn’t show them, the photo doesn’t expose anything more than you’d see on a beach in Europe.’’
Instead, the magazine is running another advertisement, featuring a different woman who does not have nipples after her mastectomy.
O’Connell said the magazine was proud to carry another of the advertisements in support of such a worthwhile cause.
But after consulting the Advertising Standards Authority it would not run the ad in question.