The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints that the two ads were sexist and offensive after saying that Lastminute had not responded, despite giving assurances that it would. Lastminute apologised for the failure, blaming staff changes for the oversight.
Six complaints were received about the campaign, based around two posters. One showed the legs and bottom of a woman wearing bikini shorts and used the strapline "go where the sun does shine", while the other showed a close-up of a woman's breasts in a white bikini, with the line "forget sandcastles, play in the dunes".
Along with accusations that the ads were sexist and demeaning to women, two people complained that they were particularly offensive to be used as posters in areas with a large Muslim population.
In its ruling, the ASA said that it was upholding the complaints not because it agreed the campaign would cause serious or widespread offence, but because it was "concerned by the advertiser's lack of response and apparent disregard for the code".
In its ruling, it said: "The authority reminded the advertisers of its responsibility to respond promptly to its requests and ensure its marketing communications complied with the code. The authority asked CAP to inform its members of the problem with the advertisers."
Mathew Hart, marketing director at Lastminute.com, said: "We take all complaints raised via the ASA very seriously and undertake to respond in a timely manner, as we have done on other occasions. Regrettably on this occasion we did not make our response in time due to personnel changes in the marketing department and we apologise for this oversight."
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .