Really [edited by admin] me off.
'Saucy' taxi ads are banned
Oct 18 2007
By Neil Elkes, Birmingham Mail
BIRMINGHAM taxis have been banned from showing gaudy pink adverts displaying whips, stiletto boots and flimsy knickers.
The controversial advertising, from racy underwear chain Agent Provocateur, would have covered a black cab in images of "fetish wear" and lingerie.
Dozens of pink panels would have displayed images items including a whip, knee-high stilleto boot, a tight black corset and eye mask, covering the car from top to bottom.
But Birmingham's licensing committee, who are the city's moral guardians ruling on advertising of a sexual nature, decided it would prove too much of a distraction to other motorists and banned it.
They also banned an advert for cosmetic surgery firm Surgicare which would have featured half naked figures.
A naked woman, with a sheet draped across her, would have been lounging along one side with a naked man on the other.
Coun Gill Beddows (Lab, Hodge Hill) said: "I was behind a taxi recently with some livery all over it advertising insurance and couldn't quite read what it was.
"I was completely distracted, my mind was on what was written on the taxi and not on the road. This is a danger to road users."
It is not the first time Agent Provocateur, which is based in Selfridges, has courted controversy in the city.
Last summer the firm was fined £1,000 after pleading guilty to five offences of illegal flyposting.
It was prosecuted over posters advertising the "greatest lingerie show on earth" on cable boxes, car park and building site hoardings and derelict buildings.
Agent Provocateur founders Joseph Corre and Serena Rees say their shops have helped put lingerie on the fashion map.
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