Conservative group covers bikini ad photo on campus

ISTANBUL

A conservative student group covers up a bikini advertisement billboard depicting a model wearing a bikini on the campus of Yıldız Teknik University.

A conservative student group has used blank sheets of paper to cover up an advertisement billboard located on the Yıldız Teknik University campus depicting a model wearing a bikini, daily Hürriyet has reported.

A student posted pictures of the action online as male students placed the paper over the billboard, while other students subsequently carried the issue to online forums.

The university’s press representative called the incident a provocation, saying, “The group that did this is a group called Anatolian Youth [Anadolu Gençlik], a conservative group, and they want to cause provocations to put pressure on the university rector.”

The representative said the company’s ad had been running at the campus for years.

The act received such strong reaction on social media that the university rector was eventually forced to respond to growing backlash, calling on students “not to blow the incident out of proportion and make it a national issue” during finals period.

The ad, belonging to an underwear and socks company in Turkey, shows a model wearing the company’s new line of bikinis. The ad is running at bus stops and on billboards around the city.