Agent Provocateur has been slated by the ad watchdog for showing scant “disregard” for the advertising code after it failed to respond to a complaint sparked by a fetish-style video on its website.
The video featured a woman, alone in her home being attacked by several others, who were wearing revealing lingerie with stockings and long boots.
They were shown dragging the other woman through the house who then adopted a series of poses, some sexual, alone and with the other women.
The woman looked visibly distressed and several times the position of her nightgown revealed her breasts.
The group of women then appeared to attack the woman’s body; she then she re-appeared wearing similar revealing lingerie to the group.
One complainant objected that the ad was irresponsible as it appeared on a website that could be seen by children, but Agent Provocateur failed to respond to the Advertising Standards Authority’s enquiries, sparking a stinging rebuke.
The ASA told the company it must respond promptly to enquiries and warned them to do so in future.
Because of the sexually graphic and at times distressing nature of the video and the potential for children to share a web-link relatively easily, the ASA banned the firm from running the video in future.
