Kids Demonstrate Why Fashion Ads Are Problematic

While it's fun to swoon over the fall campaigns in every September issue, we may be missing how troublesome many designer fashion ads are. In a new YouTube video by artist Yolanda Domínguez, 8-year-old kids react to fashion ads, and point out how demeaning they are toward women in the process.

Domínguez took a group of young children and showed them recent fashion ads to gauge their reactions. Almost every designer you could name was included, with some of the ads being either strictly women's fashion or strictly men's fashion. Many of the children react poorly to the ads featuring women, while the men's ads were less exciting but a whole lot less offensive.

A lot of the ads are ones you and I pass daily on billboards and flip by in magazines — they're popular and very widely circulated. Dominquez is based in Madrid, but her video represents a phenomenon that exists across the world. I've mindlessly skipped these ads at the beginning of every magazine, and even relished how amazing models like Cara Delevingne and Lara Stone look in them.

Here's what children had to say about some of the most widespread fashion campaigns and editorials.

Images: Yolanda Dominguez/YouTube