Primark Features Models With Disabilities in Its Fall Advertising
Primark, an Irish retailer known for its affordable fast fashion, has a new ad campaign for fall and it features two models with disabilities: Kelly Knox, who was born without a left arm, and Leo Jonah, who has albinism.
Knox was featured sporting a yellow sweater and leopard-print mini skirt on the retailer’s Instagram last week.
Primark uploaded Knox’s photo to its Instagram account on July 24 where it has amassed over 114,000 likes over a span of 6 days. Comments on the photo have praised Primark for including a model with a disability in its advertising.
“Just amazing,” one person commented on the Instagram post. “Model diversity on fleek! This should set the standards for all brands and organizations. I will definitely be visiting my local store.”
“Yesss @primark, so beautiful,” another commenter said. “My daughter was born with half her left arm missing like this gorgeous model and I know when I show her this campaign it will make her day.”
Knox is signed with Milk Model Management in London, which is how Primark found her, Knox told Metro.
“I feel so lucky and grateful to be represented by a major agency who believes in me and my beauty,” Knox said. “Who believes in the power and strength of diversity and is passionate about challenging beauty ideals and breaking barriers in the industry.’
She recently uploaded a photo of herself with Jonah on her Instagram with the caption, “Diversity is so bloody beautiful.”
Jonah uploaded the same photo to his Instagram account. He told the Daily Mail his look has both helped and hindered his modeling.
“In the modeling industry, they now want to see more different people,” he said. “But also there’s many different brands that just like the generic, beautiful looking people, and I don’t look like that, I look different. It’s always going to be holding you back as well as pushing you forward.”
Similar to Aerie’s ad campaign earlier in July, Primark did not release Knox or Johah’s photo with a press release celebrating its decision to be inclusive.
Primark has featured customers with disabilities on its Instagram before. Primark invites customers to upload photos of themselves wearing merchandise to its site under “Primania.” Some of these posts have been featured on its Instagram.
Photos via Instagram
Elizabeth is the reporter at The Mighty. Elizabeth also runs the Elizabeth Explains column of Mighty Brief, The Mighty's daily newsletter. Follow her on twitter @ekcassidy4 or send an email to elizabeth@themighty.com.
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