The Advertising Standards Authority received nine complaints about a national press ad and three posters for the Motorola Razr 2 from people who thought they were offensive and irresponsible because they believed the ads glamorised violence, particularly knife-related violence.
The press ad, which appeared in The Daily Telegraph, showed a woman wearing PVC clothes and styled like a Samurai warrior. She was standing with her hands clasped in front of her, holding a mobile phone at an angle so that it resembled a knife.
The images of violence were driven home by one poster showing a man and a woman facing each other posing in fighting positions. The man wore headphones and had a tattoo on his upper arm shaped in the form of a knife slash resembling the number two.
Motorola defended the ads by saying that they were part of a broader Razr 2 campaign which featured "highly stylised fantasy characters engaged in energised, fluid dance movements, rather than confrontation".
The mobile phone firm also said that the images were not designed to be realistic or to present the characters as aspirational.Motorola added that the current campaign highlighted and reinforced previous marketing messages for the Razr phone, relating to the "razor" thinness of the phone and representing it as a device on the cutting edge of technology.
The ASA did not uphold the complaints because it considered that most readers would appreciate the ads were promoting the new Razr 2 phone and would understand the link between the image of the phone, which when held at an angle resembled a razor, and the name of the product.
The watchdog considered that most readers would not see the images as promoting violence or giving the message that violence was to be, in any way, condoned.
The Razr campaign has also featured David Beckham.
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