The poster campaign for Living TV's lesbian drama 'The L Word' drew fire from 650 members of the public, who considered it degrading to women and unsuitable to be seen by children.
The four posters included one in which a woman in the centre of the ad was wearing knickers with the words "hello girls" printed on them and the lower part of her breasts visible. She had her arm around a woman to her left and was being touched on the hip by a woman on her right.
Another poster showed a woman holding another from behind. The figure in front was wearing knickers bearing the words "girls allowed".
Living TV defended the ads saying that they reflected the style and content of 'The L Word' and that they contained nothing that the public had not seen before. The channel added that it had sought copy advice and conducted its own research before the campaign went into final production.
The ASA acknowledged that the ads had offended some people, but considered that the images were not sexually explicit and accurately reflected the content of the programme. It concluded that the posters were unlikely to cause serious offence, to be seen as degrading to women, or were unsuitable for children.
Another ad for the Teenage Cancer Trust attracted one complaint from a cinemagoer in Hampshire, who complained that it implied a man had ejaculated on a woman's chest.
In the ad, a woman sunbather is approached by a man in a pool who squirts sun cream on her chest and tells her: "Rub it in. It's good for you."
The complaint was not upheld because the risque nature of the ad was deemed appropriate to get the attention of its teenage target market and warn them of the dangers of sunbathing without sun cream.
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