French ban 'oral sex' anti-smoking adverts posters

A French anti-smoking campaign which showed teenagers having "oral sex" with cigarettes, and implied that smoking was a form of submission or slavery, has been abandoned.

The advisory authority on advertising standards asked for the campaign to be scrapped after complaints from family and feminist groups. Two government ministers also attacked the advertisement as misplaced and inappropriate.

The association for non-smokers' rights said it was pleased that it had generated a debate on the increasing number of French teenagers who smoke. "The campaign will be limited to those materials which have already been issued," it said.

"We would hope that those people who have been so moved by these so-called shocking images will also be shocked by the plague of precocious smoking amongst their children and their grandchildren."