ASA Upholds Complaints Against Raunchy French Connection Ads

The Advertising Standards Authority has slammed French Connection for an email campaign promoting its branded clothes and condoms.

The email offered a free pack of condoms with the first 200 online orders for t-shirts, which contained the slogans “FCUK, If You Don’t Believe In Oral Sex Keep Your Mouth Shut”, “Practise Safe Sex Go FCUK Yourself” and “FCUK Guns, Disarm”.

The complainant objected the email was offensive, but French Connection claimed it had only been sent to a highly targeted audience of customers, who had registered to receive the FCUK catalogue online.

The retailer, which has come into conflict with the ASA on numerous occasions, also argued that customers had signed up to receive the email in the spirit of the FCUK brand and said it had acted reasonably to ensure material was sent to only those who thought the brand was acceptable.

However, the ASA pointed out that previous adjudication’s had warned French Connection not to use the term FCUK, when it could be interpreted as “fuck”. The Authority considered that the title of the email and the slogans on the t-shirts played on replacing the profanity with FCUK and expressed concern that the advertisers have not heeded earlier warnings.

The watchdog concluded the ad was likely to cause widespread offence and advised the company not to repeat the approach in the future. French Connection has been warned repeatedly not to use the obvious sexual innuendo of its slogan (see Retailer’s Kinky Bugger Ad Provokes Complaints To ASA).

ASA: 020 7580 5555 www.asa.org.uk

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