The Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint concerned with a range of T-Shirts by Joe Bloggs, that featured a number of provocative images and offensive phrases.
One of the T-shirts featured a pair of skulls, another showed a scantily clad female devil straddling a ratchet spanner, underpinned with the line "Horny Chicks. Shit-Hot Wheels". A third item sported a lingerie-wearing female figure with a skeletal head with the text "Slice 'n' Dice Cosmetic Surgery Clinic Beauty is only a scalpel away!".
Three other T-shirts featured the logos ">COOL A5 FUC:", "FUC7-ED>UP" and "FUC.1N>5ICK".
Although Shop Direct defended the fact that it had sent out 3.6m catalogues to customers who were all over 18 years old, the ASA banned the ads because the T-Shirts were included in a catalogue that also featured children's toys.
The Authority told the advertisers not to repeat a similar approach in future and advised them to seek the assistance of the Committee of Advertising Practice Copy Advice team before featuring the T-shirts in a catalogue again
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