A raunchy advertisement placed by French lingerie firm ‘Agent Provocateur’ showing four skimpily clad women ‘kidnapping’ a woman in her own home has been cleared by advertising agency ASA (Advertising Standards Authority). “Despite one complainant calling the video ‘misogynistic and disturbing’, the ASA deemed it unlikely to cause widespread offence,” reports Daily Mail. “The ban, imposed in November after the ASA received just one single complaint, was lifted yesterday,” says the tabloid.
The video ad shows a brunette at home in a diaphanous dressing gown being terrorised by four seductive models dressed in Agent Provocateur lingerie. Towards the end the woman is ‘ravished’ by the intruders and becomes a style clone of agressors.The two-minute advert for the Soiree Gold collection has the feel of a traditional horror film.
Daily Mail quotes ASA: ‘We acknowledged some viewers might find some of the scenes distasteful but considered the highly stylised nature and clearly fictional content of the video meant it was unlikely to be interpreted by most viewers in the way the complainant suggested.
In 2001 an Agent Provocateur advert featuring Kylie Minogue was banned by the BBC. Available to be viewed online, it went on to be one of the most viewed videos in history, with an estimated 360 million people watching.
Warning: Video contains material suitable only for Adults