Virgin Ads Too Sexy for Canadians?

City pulls ads from bus shelters

Off the bus. An advertisement for Virgin Mobile was pulled out from some Mississauga bus shelters by City officials.

Two Canadian cities including Mississauga have pulled a pair of billboard advertisements for Virgin Mobile after receiving complaints.
The ads, featuring a man in a passionate kiss with a woman while touching her buttocks, with a tagline “Hook up fearlessly,” did not sit well with the City officials.
Ed De Grosbois, director of business services for the City of Mississauga, said the city removed the ads because they may be perceived as sexual exploitation of either men or women.
"Many of these campaigns would be quite suitable for a magazine, but putting them into a bus shelter where there’s young children I think is the main issue," De Grosbois told The Canadian Press.
Three versions of the ad from the cellphone provider were being displayed at about 50 bus stops around Calgary. It’s unclear just how many billboards were exhibited in Mississauga bus shelters.
A spokesperson from Virgin Mobile Canada confirmed that some ads were taken down in Mississauga after some “minor complaints.”
Officials from Canada’s national advertising watchdog said they have not had any complaints about the Virgin Mobile ads.
“We never monitor advertising, but we always react to complaints,” said Danielle Lefrancois, spokeswoman for the group. “We would have to consider the nature of the complaint itself.”
Virgin Mobile spokesman Nathan Rosenberg told media the company doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.