Calvin Klein Apologizes for Bella Hadid Ad Featuring Her Kissing Female Robot

Calvin Klein responded to backlash from the LGBTQ community over a commercial starring Bella Hadid kissing a female robot instead of a real woman.

The 30-second spot is titled "Bella Hadid and Lil Miquela Get Surreal" and shows the 22-year-old model kissing Lil Miquela, a female robot Instagram star with more than 1.5 million followers. The ad is part of Calvin Klein's "I Speak My Truth in #MyCalvins" campaign.

"Life is about opening doors," Hadid is heard saying in the narration before she moves to kiss the robot. "Creating new dreams, you never knew could exist."

While the commercial was meant to be about inspiring individuality and blurring the lines between reality and fiction, it garnered controversy since it was released on Thursday. Some accused the fashion brand of "queer-bating," referring to a marketing technique using queer sexuality for the sole purpose of bringing attention to the product instead of actually embracing it, notes PEOPLE.

On Friday, less than 24 hours after the ad surfaced, Calvin Klein issued an apology on Twitter.

"The concept for our latest #MyCalvins campaign is to promote freedom of expression for a wide range of identities, including a spectrum of gender and sexual identities," the statement read. "This specific campaign was created to challenge conventional norms and stereotypes in advertising. In this particular video, we explored the blurred lines between reality and imagination."

The statement continued, "We understand and acknowledge how featuring someone who identifies as heterosexual in a same-sex kiss could be perceived as queerbating. As a company with a longstanding tradition of advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, it was certainly not out intention to misrepresent the LGBTQ+ community. We sincerely regret any offense we caused."

This did not stop critics from calling out the brand in responses to the statement. The advertisement was also not taken down, and it has over 92,000 views.

"There are plenty of real LGBTQ Models that could have been used. #noexcuse," one person wrote.

"Making out with a female robot is primarily a male fantasy. This obviously was male directed," another added.

"WTF?!?!?!? Seriously!!!!! No one in your company raised concerns about this?!?!?! NO ONE?!?!? Either you employ seriously inept & ignorant people OR they didn't feel like they were allowed speak up," another wrote. "I'm speechless at the tone deafness & utter lack of respect."

The "I Speak My Truth in #MyCalvins" campaign has featured dozens of celebrities in separate spots, including Kendall Jenner, Troye Sivan, A$AP Rocky, Billie Eilish and Shawn Mendes.

Photo credit: Calvin Klein/YouTube