A&F has a great marketing department!!! They do this in the US all the time. They make an ad that they know will cause controversy and the sit back and laugh at all the free exposure they get out of it when it is reported in the news. The ad is supposed to give them exposure and it does that wonderfully.
It's not about being creative, it's about getting people to talk about your brand. How many people are going to say they want to see the ad now that it has been reported and will go into the A&F store? Quite a bit.
Plus they did their research well. That such an innocent pic would raise such a fuss. Although I bet most people don't care, it's just the few that scream loudly.