Missguided's shop in Bluewater has been slammed after their store had a neon sign which read 'Send me nudes'
Customers of the worldwide brand Missguided have hit out of the company after noticing their bright neon sign which read 'Send me nudes' in the shop.
Rachel Gardner noticed the sign after her friend (who was shopping with her 11 and 13-year-old daughters) spotted it in Missguided's Bluewater Shopping Centre store.
The youth worker took to Twitter to explain her dismay, she wrote: "What hope is there for girls when the stores they shop in give them this message? @Missguided it's time to respect girls & remove this sign."
Hundreds of people retweeted and liked her post, with lots of people slamming the company for promoting the message to their young audience which includes teenage girls. One person wrote on Twitter: "Is it acceptable for @Missguided in @TweetBluewater to display 'send me nudes' neon sign? Given customers are young teen girls, explain pls."
Another fumed: "@Missguided 'send me nudes' instore marketing is wrong!No need to discuss!Disrespectful Exploitive & very dangerous! Change the message now!"
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Someone else said: "What are you thinking @missguided "send me nudes"?!!! So reckless & disrespectful and as a father of girls, not appreciated at all. Remove!"
A fourth person added: "@Missguided_help do you think it's appropriate to have a neon sign saying 'send me nudes' instore? What a message to send girls and women."
Following the attention, Rachel set up an online petition to urge the clothing company to remove the sign from their store. On the page, she explained her reasoning and said: "Teenage girls feel under increasing pressure to create and send nude pictures of themselves.
"An NSPCC report says teenage girls are most adversely affected by the sexting culture. Once online, these nude images can be seen and used by anyone, making girls and vulnerable young women the victims of bullying, revenge porn and exploitation."
She went on to say: "In posting 'Send me nudes' in their store, Missguided are promoting a negative and damaging culture. So, we are calling on Missguided to respect girls and take down their sign."
Over 9,000 people signed the petition and within 24 hours Missguided removed the sign from their shop. Rachel announced the news on her petition page and explained: "We wanted Missguided to respect girls more and remove the sign 'Send me nudes x' from the back wall of their store in Bluewater.
"We are pleased to announce they have done so. We thank Missguided for their swift action in response to our petition.
"We urge Missguided and other fashion stores to take their responsibility seriously by not sexualising girls, legitimising the negative sexual pressures they feel under or encouraging illegal behaviour through their marketing campaigns."
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