FCUK rapped over adverts

Adverts for FCUK, including one which was claimed to "suggest paedophilia", have landed the chain in trouble with watchdogs.

The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have upheld two complaints against the French Connection chain.

The ASA said they received single complaints about separate adverts which were printed in FHM and the London Evening Standard newspaper.

The first, spread across two pages, showed the head and shoulders of a young woman appearing to hold a rope and an accompanying headline: "Fancy conquering unchartered kingdom?".

The complainant, from Hertfordshire, claimed the advert "suggested paedophilia" because of the age of the model and the children's "swing"-style rope.

French Connection said it was "saddened and disgusted" by the complaint and that they "took an extremely responsible view" on how models were used in their advertisements. It said the model hired for that campaign was 23-years-old.

The ASA said the advertisement "did not suggest paedophilia" but decided that it "would be seen to portray the young woman as someone to be conquered" and told French Connection not to repeat the advert.

The chain also defended a second advert, for its fcukinkybugger.com website, which the authority ordered it not to repeat. It said that both "kinky" and "bugger" were "commonly used words and unlikely to offend".

But ASA officials ruled that the advertisement was "likely to cause serious or widespread offence" because of the way the website's address "could be read".

The ASA have upheld four complaints against the company's adverts in the last 12 months including one for its new Oxford Street branch in London which French Connection boasted would be the "world's biggest fcuk".