Tesco defends 'offensive' S&M poster

Tesco today defended its advert featuring a figure clad in rubber bondage gear. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a single complaint that the supermarket's poster campaign for its new Soho store was offensive.

The poster showed a person in a sadomasochistic "gimp" outfit chained to a pole, alongside a small dog tied to the pole, above the caption TESCO Metro Dean St Soho in pink neon.

Tesco is to appeal against the ruling and marketing director Tim Mason said the supermarket had been "unfairly" treated.

"We can't understand why our advert has been singled out in this way," he said. "All vox pops we carried out showed shoppers thought it was amusing."