Zara has withdrawn its latest advertising campaign published on its website and app, which featured legless mannequins and statues wrapped in white fabric, after calls emerged from some pro-Palestinian activists for a boycott of the fashion retailer.
The photos, which appeared on the Zara online store’s home page on Monday morning, were no longer visible on the website or app by 12:30 p.m. The controversial photos have also been removed from social media. Inditex, the group that owns Zara, said the change was part of its normal content update procedure.
Zara’s Instagram account received tens of thousands of comments on the photos, many of which featured Palestinian flags, and “#BoycottZara” was trending on social media site X. Many comments claimed the photos resembled corpses in the Gaza Strip.
The company has not commented on calls for a boycott, but said the Atelier collection was designed in July and the photographs were taken in September. The war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7.
At the collection’s launch on December 7, Zara said she was inspired by the men’s tailoring of centuries past, and the photographs featured ladders, wooden boxes and cranes, as well as assistants dressed in overalls.