Miley Cyrus poster cleared after complaint

She is often on the receiving end of backlash for her shocking antics but Miley Cyrus has managed to avoid getting into trouble for once.

The 22-year-old singer was shown on a billboard at a shopping centre lying down in a low-cut body suit with her legs apart while promoting MAC Cosmetics. Another poster showed a similar picture with the reflection of the singer’s crotch partially visible in the mirror.

MAC believed that the ads were consistent with the ASA’s statement on sexual imagery in outdoor advertising and didn’t feel they were overtly sexual or unsuitable to be displayed in a public area.

The ad was defended by MAC Cosmetics, saying it featured the Wrecking Ball singer in a “confident pose”, and that it was intended to draw viewers to her “defiant stare”. “She was fully clothed and no reference to undressing was made”.

The ASA had received three complaints over the images, from members of the public who thought the adverts were overtly sexual and offensive.

While the ASA disagreed with M.A.C.’s premise (c’mon, this ad is obviously racy), they said that the poster was indeed sexual but not enough to cause it to be banned.

The ASA said that the ads should not appear within 100m of a school, a stipulation which MAC had already set itself when it booked the campaign with billboard and poster media owners.

In their conclusion, the watchdog admitted that while they found the images in all three posters of the campaign to be “sexually suggestive… they were not overtly sexual”.