"Ten pence bikinis" (The Sun)

56 complaints

ASA verdict - Not upheld

What the ASA said:

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Was this too much flesh for the side of a bus? Complainants objected to this ad for the Sun Newspaper that showed the naked top half of a woman with two enlarged ten pence pieces covering each breast. Objections related to women being portrayed as sexual objects, the ads appearing on buses where children could view them and also that the image was pornographic.

We ruled that the ad, whilst distasteful to some, was not overtly sexual in nature and the amount of flesh revealed was no different to that in a bikini ad and could not reasonably be argued to be pornographic or likely to cause serious or widespread offence.