by Deborah Condon

Four alcoholic drinks were the subject of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI), due to their sexually suggestive connotations, the ASAI said.

A television advertisement for Guinness showing a number of people in a crowded chip shop was the subject of complaints due to its 'overtly sexual images', such as a woman fixing her underwear. One complainant felt that the ad represented females in a degrading manner.

A cinema ad for Miller Beer featuring a scene between a young man and woman in a laundry room, in which the woman takes off most of her clothes, was also the subject of a complaint.

Meanwhile two poster ads for WKD Vodka were also objected to. One showed a pair of feet enclosed within two other pairs of feet, while the other showed an X-ray of a pelvis with a ring situated below the pelvic bone. Both ads carried the slogan, 'Have you got a WKD side?' The complainant considered the posters had sexual implications.

The complaints committee of the ASAI upheld all the complaints as it felt that the particular use of sexual imagery in the ads implied that the drinks 'can contribute towards sexual success or make the drinker more attractive to the opposite sex'. This, the committee added, contravenes the ASAI's code of advertising standards.

However a similar complaint against a Baileys television ad was not upheld.

The ad features a club in which a woman mimes a request for a Baileys to a male friend who is unable to hear her because of the noise. The complaints committee expressed its concerns about the 'overtly sensual nature of the actions by the woman in the commercial', but did not consider the ad to be in breach of the ASAI's code.