Best-selling cookbook author Molly Baz was recently featured in a Swehl ad in Times Square promoting lactation cookies.
Clad in white lingerie with a flimsy wrap that fully exposes her belly, Baz covers her silver bikini-clad breasts with two lactation cookies.
The text beside her reads, “Just Add Milk.”
The recipe for "Big Titty Cookies," which Baz developed and is available for free on Swehl’s website, contains ingredients believed to help increase milk supply in breastfeeding mothers.
“Never did I ever think my big titties and preggo belly would be larger than life on a billboard in times square but HERE WE ARE FOLKS!!!!” the former food editor wrote in an Instagram post.
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The “Just Add Milk” digital billboard launched on May 6 was supposed to run until Mother’s Day, but it was asked to be taken down after only three days.
Swehl, a startup specializing in breastfeeding products and resources, said in a statement to Good Morning America that it received an email on May 9 from Clear Channel, the company in charge of managing ads in Times Square.
The email stated that the billboard “violates their guidelines for acceptable content.”
“Molly and Swehl concepted our campaign to infuse fun and strength into this rite of passage; so you can imagine that our team was infuriated to hear the ad was pulled for being 'unacceptable' without any further context," Swehl said.
Baz Defends the Campaign's Message
Swehl’s ad being removed has fueled the longstanding debate on the double standards about women’s body representations.
This recent incident is proof that showcasing the bodies of pregnant and nursing women, as well as other realistic portrayals of mothers’ bodies, are still considered on the taboo side.
As Baz pointed out, sexualized images of nearly naked women usually grace billboards in high-traffic sites like Times Square without a problem.
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“I’ve done a lot of campaigns in my day but as soon as my pregnant belly and breasts got involved things apparently got real uncomfy for some folks,” Baz wrote on Instagram.
“Take one look at the landscape of other billboards in Times Square and I think you’ll see the irony. bring on the lingerie so long as it satiates the male gaze,” she added.
Baz further defended the campaign’s image as something that captures “a woman that was empowered in her pregnancy.”
And while the “Cook This Book” author described what happened to be “disheartening and infuriating,” she remains strong in her commitment to raising awareness about breastfeeding.
“We’re going to keep amplifying this message that women and their pregnant bodies, and everything that pregnancy and breastfeeding entails is something to celebrate,” Baz shared.
