Mother's no-nonsense campaign for the Unilever-owned Lever Faberge brand features a woman sporting 12 different hairstyles. Each photo has a caption summing up the attitude and pose adopted for each style, with lines including "play with me" and "have fun with me", as well as "shag me".
Readers of Essentials, Prima and Woman complained that the phrase "shag me" was offensive, with many of the outraged complaining directly to the magazines, as well as to the ASA.
Executives at Essentials and Woman had checked the ad before publication and assumed that their readers, who range in age from 25 to 60, would not baulk at the use of "shag me" in this context.
Prima executives admitted that they had had not checked the ad before publication, but said they would have questioned the content if they had seen it.
Lever Faberge protested that it had conducted extensive research in the development of the campaign concept. The household goods giant insisted that none of the women questioned, who were aged between 25 and 40, were offended
by the term "shag me".
The ASA backed the campaign, however, by refusing to uphold the complaints.
In its adjudication, the ASA points out that "shag me" is a commonly used and humorous term, which is unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.