The complainant objected to the ad because it played on the work "fuck" and the complaint was upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority because of the sexually suggestive content.
The first side of the two-sided ad included a picture of a young man and woman sitting side by side on a bed in their underwear, and the man had his hand placed suggestively on the woman's side. Beneath this was the text "FCUK Fragrance" and a photograph of two bottles of perfume.
The reverse of the page showed an enlarged photograph of the two bottles of perfume with "him" and "her" written on them. Text on two fold-out sections on the side of the page that contained samples of the perfume stated "open here to try FCUK her" and "open here to try FCUK him".
The complaint was also against fragrance licensee Zirh International, which French Connection said had been responsible for placing the ad. It said that the ad was originally devised for use in the American market and it was not told that Zirh had decided to use it in the UK.
Zirh said it was surprised that the phrases "open here to try FCUK her" and "open here to try FCUK him" could be seen as offensive. The ads were placed in Boots Health & Beauty magazine.
The magazine publisher said that it had received no complaints about the ad and 1.8m copies of the magazine were distributed to Boots customers.
The ASA said it reminded Zirh that it had previously made clear in published adjudications that "FCUK" should not be used in an advertisement if it could be interpreted as "fuck" and was concerned that it had done so in the ad. It told both parties not to repeat the approach.
It is the fourth time the ASA has ruled against French Connection in the last 12 months.
An ASA ruling in July means that the company currently has to have its FCUK-branded posters approved by the CAP copy advice team before poster contractors will accept them for display in the UK.
This followed a ruling in February 2004 concerning the FCUK Vanity cosmetics range poster campaign, in which the ASA upheld a complaint and ordered the copy to be amended.
In March, it asked French Connection not to use its the FCUK logo in unsolicited catalogues targeting new customers when it could be construed as a rude word.
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