Bra ads too sexy to sell bras....

This is not just any ad, this is an offensive M&S ad... lingerie posters deemed 'too sexually suggestive'

By DEBORAH ARTHURS

Last updated at 4:31 PM on 16th May 2011

A series of M&S lingerie adverts have come under fire for their 'provocative' content. 

The advertisements, featuring close-up images of a model's cleavage coupled with slogans such as 'Perfect fits' have drawn complaints from viewers who deemed the posters too sexually suggestive to be shown where children might see them.

The adverts were among 8,000 over the past three years that have attracted complaints because of their effects on children, according to analysis from the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority).

Turning heads: The M&S adverts were among 8,000 over the past three years that have attracted complaints because of their effects on children

Controversial: This M&S advertisement drew complaints from viewers concerned the provocative content was too sexually suggestive for children

Fashion brand Diesel also featured in the list thanks to its controversial campaign showing a woman taking a photograph down her bikini bottoms while a lion approaches, and a second featuring a woman revealing her breasts to a CCTV camera. 

At the time of broadcast, the M&S adverts were cleared for use, deemed a 'fair' way to advertise adult lingerie, but both Diesel ads were banned from being used as billboard posters. 

The ASA ordered that the images could only be used in adult magazines, saying they considered they might 'encourage behaviour that was anti-social or irresponsible'.

The results from the ASA's research will form part of the government's Bailey review of the commercialisation and sexualisation of children, expected to be released later this week. 

The report is set to explore ways in which parents can help protect their children from what David Cameron last year called an 'invasion' of sexually provocative content.

Cameron warned: 'More and more today, sexually provocative images are invading public space – space shared by children.

'In the Tube station, at the bus stop, on the billboard – there’s the creeping sense that we’re sleepwalking to a place where "porn is the norm".'

The Bailey review comes in response to a poll published in December, where more than 80 per cent of parents confessed they thought children were forced to grow up too quickly. 

The report approaches the idea of creating a 'family friendly society that protects children and lets parents be parents'.

Reg Bailey, chief executive of the Mothers' Union and leader of the review, said parents were struggling against the 'slow creep of an increasingly commercial and sexualised culture and behaviour', and had been left feeling as though 'traditionally trusted controls' like the 9pm TV watershed had become less rigorous and the lines more blurred.

With his report he says he plans to give parents the support and encouragement they need to help their children 'understand and resist the harms they face'.