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The ad, created by Publicis for the "Two Strong Ladies" campaign, features two bearded men dressed as women walking down a street wearing clogs. A voiceover says: "This is Brenda and Audrey and this is Amsterdam, home to some of the filthiest windows."

Red neon lights appear, with Brenda seen peering at a dirty window in front of a woman in suspenders standing with her legs apart. The pair then try to clean the two windows, with Brenda using Bounty Glass & Surfaces and Audrey using a sponge and a large pair of pants as she struggles to clean the other.

The voiceover says: "Come on Audrey, it's no use blaming your tools" with women in the background visible in their underwear behind both windows.

One viewer complained that his daughters had asked awkward questions and others said it was not suitable for the ads to be broadcast during children's programmes.

Procter & Gamble said its Brenda and Audrey campaign had been running for many years and was well received. It said it was confident the Amsterdam setting of the commercial would not cause serious or widespread offence nor would it in any way distress children.

The advertiser said that the scenario was clearly comedy, as was the case in previous Bounty ads, and that such a restriction needed to be for a purpose and it saw no reason for it in this case.

The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre said the ad was cleared to run in the scheduled times because it did not believe that children would be able to grasp the significance of what was shown from the brief clues present in the ad.

The Advertising Standards Authority Broadcast Council, which rules on television advertising, said that it accepted that the ad featured well-known characters, was intended to be humorous and no offence was likely to result from it.

However, it did find the ad was in breach of the Advertising Standards Code, which states "parents should feel confident that they can allow even the youngest children to watch, unaccompanied, programmes made specifically for children".

"We understood their concerns and therefore considered an ex-kids restriction should have been applied to avoid this," the ASA said in its ruling.

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