'Angel of the North' for the Metro Centre and 'Dirty Limerick' for the Irish city, both suitably illustrated by scantily clad ladies, posed no problem at all.
The aim is not to expose the squeamishness of the advertising regulators when confronted with the clever juxtaposition of Ann Summers and a nursery rhyme.
The point made by Rob Clilverd, chief executive of BLM Clilverd, was that Ann Summers managed to produce advertising that was locally relevant. Most advertising and planning agencies based in London don't bother - and don't even see the need - because London is where they all live. Fees linked to volume national buys might have something to do with it as well.
Clilverd's favourite example was the BMW poster shown all over the country from SW4 to the North-East. The reference to SW4, suggested the Bristol-based Clilverd, was just the sort of thing that goes down well in Sunderland. He was appearing alongside WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell at last week's Newspaper Society seminar on the importance of 'localness'.
Sir Martin was excellent on the rise of China and the challenge of the internet. He was equally sound on the effects of globalisation and over-capacity in manufacturing, which leads to marketing strategies based on price-cutting rather than nurturing brands over time.
Sir Martin also absolutely acknowledged the importance of community and localness, and suggested the approach had to get down to the level of marketing to nations rather than international regions.
Clilverd, who rather stole the show, was a lot more local than that. If you want to reach the Welsh, parish magazines and pubs seem to be the best way to do it. On an index of 100, the Welsh score 271 for pubs when asked about the most important attribute of making a strong local community; parish magazines score 400.
BLM Clilverd, which specialises in all regional media, has produced a compelling case that there are huge regional variations in both attitudes and purchasing behaviour across the UK.
The regional stereotypes in this proprietary research are to be expected. Yorkshire man likes the cheapest prices, thinks a woman's place is in the home, is not interested in other cultures and believes the whole point of drinking is to get drunk; London man is interested in other cultures, doesn't like local newspapers or radio, and thinks a night in the pub is for Northerners.
Well, up to a point. But there are some important real differences.
In the South-West, people believe local and regional papers more than the national press, and the penetration of papers such as The Cornishman, The West Briton and The Cornish Times are all over 70%.
With the Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle, Bromley Times and Ealing and Acton Gazette the figure, according to Clilverd, is less than 10%.
But it's the resulting difference in attitude to retailers that is particularly revealing: Tesco is seen as best by 33% of the UK population on average - in the North-East, the figure is 17%; across the UK, Argos is seen as the best electrical retailer by 41%, but in London it is 20%.
Rob Clilverd's rhetorical question is 'If all consumers are different, why do we speak to them in the same way?'
That is something that Ann Summers knows very well, with or without the help of the ASA.
30 SECONDS ON ... 'WANTED ADS' RESEARCH
- The Newspaper Society previewed the second stage of its 'wanted ads' research at the Home Truths conference, revealing the results of test campaigns run for six brands: Innocent Smoothies, Thomas Cook, Foster's, Heinz Tomato Ketchup, Lavazza and Dr Oetker Pizzas from March to May 2006.
- Each brand ran a campaign in a targeted city to discover the power of local press advertising.
- In Leeds, ads for Innocent grew unprompted brand awareness from 17% to 28%.
- In Manchester, Lavazza achieved an uplift in brand preference from 19% among non-readers to 38% among readers who had seen the ad in the regional press.
- In Birmingham, Foster's netted a huge uplift in those who had bought the brand in the previous four weeks, from 11% of non-readers to 31% of readers who had seen the execution.