The Breil ad, which featured in Observer Music Monthly and Company magazine, showed a young woman holding a handgun pointing upwards. Next to the woman was a rifle range target in the form of a silhouetted head and torso; at the foot of the target were bullet holes that spelled out "Don't touch my Breil". Complainants said that the ads glamourised guns and were threatening and irresponsible.
Seiko claimed that the ads, part of a wider campaign that also included television, were meant to portray the excitement and glamour of a fictional James Bond lifestyle not to glamourise the use of guns. However, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that although the ads were not threatening, they were irresponsible as they glamourised guns and asked Seiko not to repeat the approach.
Meanwhile Tesco was also criticised for ads promoting the launch of its Soho Metro store. Objections were made to two posters that stated "Tesco Metro Dean St Soho" in pink neon lettering below a photograph.
One poster showed a person wearing rubber bondage clothing, including a face mask and neck collar, standing with arms folded outside a supermarket. The other showed models dressed as the 70s disco group The Village People standing in the till queue.
Complaints about the ads ranged from: the sadomasochistic clothing was offensive; that they reinforced stereotypes of homosexual men as sexually deviant; and that the ads generally reinforced negative stereotypes of homosexual men.
Tesco claims that the ads were meant to communicate that Tesco was in tune with and ready to join the Soho population with its new Dean Street store.
The ASA upheld the complaint against sado-masochistic clothing, ruling that it was likely to cause offence on a poster in that location. However the other complaints were not upheld.
It said that the images were meant to be humorous and the sexuality of the person in the poster was ambiguous, so readers were unlikely to interpret the main message as being that homosexual men were sexually deviant. The Village People ad was seen as a light-hearted play on the reputation of the Soho area. It said that the image cultivated fun and was unlikely to cause widespread offence.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .