The ad for the men's fashion title FHM Collections includes a black-and-white image showing the intertwined legs of two women in short glamorous dresses. Another woman, similarly dressed up, is crouching in front of a man in a dinner jacket and appears to be performing fellatio.
A popped champagne bottle, strategically placed at the same level as the woman's head and the man's crotch, is spraying froth.
The ad ran in FHM's stablemate film title Empire to promote FHM Collections, a spin-off fashion magazine.
The complainant, a member of the public from Lanarkshire, objected to the ads on the grounds that they were offensive and unsuitable to appear in Empire.
Emap defended the ads saying that Empire readers had an average age of 28 and that 45% of them read FHM. The publisher said it had no plans to run the ads in Empire again, and agreed to use less sexually suggestive pictures in the future. Emap admitted that it had received four complaints about the ads.
The Advertising Standards Authority agreed with the complainant that the ads were sexually suggestive and, although they appeared in a magazine intended for adults, the images were likely to cause widespread offence.
A complaint about a second ad in the same magazine, advertising the free 'High Street Honeys' FHM book, was not upheld. It features a Polaroid photograph of a woman, wearing see-through lingerie and kneeling on a bed. Handwritten text on the photo read: "Kayleigh, 18, Worcester". Beneath the photo more text read: "…And we've got another 99 just like her! FHM High Street Honeys 2003 Free with next month's FHM -- the book we have been waiting for."
The ASA said it considered the ad reflected the nature of the book and was unlikely to cause offence to the readers fo Empire.
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