Poor old H&M. The Scandi store has found itself in the middle of a right old smorgasbord of scandal after eagle-eyed Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet spotted that the lingerie and swimwear models used on the H&M website were computer generated. Each identical CGI model struck the same pose (H&M’s first mistake), but their heads and skintone changed with each look.

Everyone is up in arms, of course, and H&M has been forced to apologise for what the Advertising Standards peeps have said amounts to the irresponsible promotion of an impossible body image. In their defence, H&M said it wasn’t about unrealistic ideals or to show off a perfect body, but was simply meant to show off the garments.

To be fair, the computer generated model looks no better than a real, airbrushed model would have – and probably worked out cheaper (worrying news for the modelling industry though, no?).

Our take on it? Having spent all their cash hiring Jerry Hall, Georgia May Jagger, Bryan Ferry and Karen Elson for the latest H&M Christmas ad campaign, there was nothing left in the pot to hire a real live model.

Either that, or one of the designers has been watching too much Weird Science.

via Jezebel