A sex toy business has had an advert banned after it made reference to the Duke of Sussex’s tell all memoir.
The billboard advert for Lovehoney was banned after it featured a ball gag and text saying “silence is golden, Harry” shortly after the release of Spare.
After a complaint the advert, seen in Clapham Junction station in February, was deemed inappropriate as it could have been seen by children.
Lovehoney said that they did not believe the ad was offensive.
The retailer said the ad was created in response to the release of Harry’s memoir, which they pointed out contained “a number of indiscreet revelations, some of which had a sexual reference”.
At the time the ad was published Lovehoney issued a press release saying it “was meant to be humorous and that not all family stories needed to be shared with the public”.
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Lovehoney said they did not believe the ad was inappropriate for untargeted display because a ball gag had no explicit sexual reference and children would not recognise it as a sex toy.
The ASA said it understood that a ball gag was a sex toy that was placed in the mouth of a person to limit them from talking, and while some people would find this “distasteful” it concluded that it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.
However it found that the image of a ball gag and references to the toy in the text were inappropriate for children to see.
The ASA said: “We considered that while younger children were likely to be unaware of what the item was, older children might have greater awareness of what the object was intended for.
“We therefore considered that the ad was inappropriate for outdoor display where it could be seen by children.
“We concluded that the ad had been irresponsibly targeted.”
Following the release of the memoir, many Brighton residents had mixed opinions on the Duke of Sussex as many said he should have the title stripped.
Out of 236 Argus readers, 90 per cent believed that Prince Harry should no longer be the Duke of Sussex.
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