An ad for a clothing firm featuring a five-year-old boy with his toenails painted bright pink, has sparked some controversy.

The J Crew ad features Jenna Lyons, the chain’s president and creative director, and her son Beckett, 5.

Lyons is seen with a bottle of neon pink nail polish painting her son’s toenails under the headline, ”Saturday with Jenna… See how she and son Beckett go off duty in style.”

Lyons is quoted in the ad: “Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose favourite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon.”

The image (left) was featured in an email sent to customers last week and has sparked quite the debate over gender identity in children.

A number of psychiatrists have slammed the ad, claiming that promotion of such an image “celebrates transgendered identity”.

According to a column by Dr. Keith Ablow for FoxNews.com, “This is a dramatic example of the way that our culture is being encouraged to abandon all trappings of gender identity.”

Another expert for Fox added that the ad is “blatant propaganda celebrating transgendered children.”

Jo B. Paoletti, author of Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From the Boys in America, says the critics of the ad are overreacting.

“Lots of kids, say seven and under, might ask their parents for something that would seem to be cross gender, and I think most parents, especially in the privacy of their own home might think, what’s the big deal?”

What do you think?

Photo: JCrew.com