Post by Liam O'Reilly on Aug 25, 2006 13:02:05 GMT
A poster showing singer Britney Spears nude and pregnant will be displayed on Tokyo's subway system, despite an earlier decision to ban the advert.
Officials initially claimed the photo, which appears on the cover of Harper's Bazaar magazine, was "overly stimulating" for public display.
They now say they understand the intention is to portray a happy mother, rather than to be sexually explicit.
The image had appeared in the magazine's August edition in the US.
Publishers had agreed to display a version of the promotional poster in which everything below the American pop star's elbow is masked.
The censored version would have contained a statement reading: "We apologise for hiding part of a beautiful image of a mother-to-be."
"I'm glad the subway officials understood the meaning of the photo," said the magazine's deputy chief editor, Kayoko Higashino.
"Our earlier request to cover the photo from the waist down was because of nudity, not because we had anything against pregnant women," said Tokyo subway spokesman, Tatsuya Edakubo.
Spears, 24, and husband Kevin Federline, 28, are expecting their second child in the autumn. The couple already have an 11-month-old child, Sean Preston.
Officials initially claimed the photo, which appears on the cover of Harper's Bazaar magazine, was "overly stimulating" for public display.
They now say they understand the intention is to portray a happy mother, rather than to be sexually explicit.
The image had appeared in the magazine's August edition in the US.
Publishers had agreed to display a version of the promotional poster in which everything below the American pop star's elbow is masked.
The censored version would have contained a statement reading: "We apologise for hiding part of a beautiful image of a mother-to-be."
"I'm glad the subway officials understood the meaning of the photo," said the magazine's deputy chief editor, Kayoko Higashino.
"Our earlier request to cover the photo from the waist down was because of nudity, not because we had anything against pregnant women," said Tokyo subway spokesman, Tatsuya Edakubo.
Spears, 24, and husband Kevin Federline, 28, are expecting their second child in the autumn. The couple already have an 11-month-old child, Sean Preston.