Britain's advertising watchdog had ordered that a perfume advert featuring a naked woman be taken off billboards because it was deemed to have offended the public's sensibilities.
The posters, for Yves Saint Laurent perfume Opium, show model Sophie Dahl, the 23-year-old grand-daughter of children's author Roald Dahl, lying on her back clad only in a pair of gold high heels and some jewelry.
When it launched the posters, Yves Saint Laurent described the image as "a tasteful nude in the tradition of high art."
But Britain's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) disagreed.
It banned the poster on Monday after receiving 730 complaints about it from members of the public since the image appeared on billboards a month ago.
That made it the most complained about piece of advertising since a 1995 leaflet campaign for the British Safety Campaign.
The leaflets, which attracted 1,100 complaints, bore a mock-up image of Pope John Paul II wearing a motorcycle helmet and exhorting people to practice safe sex.
Christopher Graham, ASA director general, said the Opium adverts were degrading to women and offensive.
"This was the most complained about advertisement in the last five years," he said. "As a poster it clearly caused serious and widespread offence."
He added that the image was sexually suggestive and likely to cause "serious or widespread offence" thereby breaking the British code of practice on advertising.
People have already expressed their disgust at the image by defacing the posters with paint.
A member of the semi-autonomous Welsh Assembly lodged a formal complaint after one of the posters was put up outside the entrance to the Assembly building in Cardiff -- LONDON (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
