Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Campaigners say Swiss bunny girl advert 'promotes animal sex'

Image of g-string superimposed onto a rabbit courts controversy

Tom Payne
Tuesday 22 April 2014 07:17 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

An advert for a Swiss shopping centre that features a g-string superimposed onto a rabbit has been criticised for “promoting animal sex” by campaigners.

The Easter poster campaign, used to promote a new shop opening in Basel, Switzerland, has courted controversy for depicting a subversive ‘bunny girl’ with red underwear photoshopped onto a rabbit.

Critics say the animal is sexualised by the image, which links to bestiality and amounts to animal abuse.

Daniel Bader from a Swiss animal protection group told the Tages Anzeiger newspaper: “From our point of view, the respect of the rabbit has been badly damaged.

“This is a clear sexualisation of an animal. As far as I'm concerned, it heads in the direction of bestiality and it stinks of promoting animal sex and the sexual abuse of animals”.

But the manager of the shopping centre that displayed the image has hit back at critics.

He told Central European News that images of attractive women in bunny ears and fluffy tails were clichéd, and that he wanted to do something different by using a real bunny.

A Swiss PR guru, Klaus J. Stoehlker, said the image was damaging to the lingerie company.

“If I was the boss of that Italian lingerie company I would take action over this advertising,” he said.

“I mean, who wants to see their sexy underwear stuck on such a fat rabbit backside?”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in