Cocktails Ltd said that they ran a chain of large, licensed sex shops called 'Pulse and Cocktails, Sexy Superstores/Sexy Adult Stores'. They said that their stores had been specifically designed to create a modern, female-friendly 'sexy store' for couples to shop together for marital aids and lingerie. The marketing of the stores had always involved promoting a fun, tongue-in-cheek concept, to encourage couples to go 'sexy shopping and that showed that 'sexy shopping was fun'. They said that their company motto was 'couples who play together, stay together'.

Cocktails Ltd said that all their advertising was done in-house and they had used various forms of media including radio, press and billboard since starting the business in 1997. This advertising had always followed a similar format, promoting a 'sexy shopping' theme, including their company name "Pulse & Cocktails" and also wording used on the store signage to describe the store as either a 'Sexy Superstore' or a 'Sexy Adult Store' instead of the traditional 'Sex Shop'. They said they had always used the word 'sexy' to describe their stores as it was less harsh than the word 'sex'.

They said that the images used on their posters and in the press were of models dressed in fancy dress costume and these varied slightly, depending on the season and had ranged from a Bunny Girl costume, Miss Santa, a Sexy Maid and a Cow Girl. These costumes were not skimpy and were now so mainstream that they could be purchased from general, high street clothing stores and supermarkets. The images used in their advertising were direct from the costume manufacturers and in addition to the advertising, the costumes and images were displayed on their store windows and mannequins.

Cocktails Ltd said that their posters were intended to have a sexier edge because they were advertising their business but they were not intended to be offensive, demeaning to women or 'overtly sexual', so as to be harmful to children.

They said that the ads mirrored the appearance of their stores, which were in numerous locations throughout the UK and were widely visible to the general public. They said that if seen by children, the poster ads would be unlikely to provoke thoughts about sexual behaviour, as they were not sexually suggestive in that way. The posters might have created curiosity as to what a 'sexy adult store' was but this would have been exactly the same curiosity as when passing one of their stores or a similar store, on a busy High Street or shopping centre. They went on to say that other High Street 'adult stores' had imagery in their windows that was far more sexual, including images of sex toys and sexually suggestive text that any child could have stood directly in front of and looked at more closely.

Cocktails Ltd stated that none of their posters described products for sale or showed images of products of a sexual nature. The word 'sexy' was used by the media on a daily basis and it would have been hard to imagine why a child would be affected by reading this word.

Cocktails Ltd stated that they selected the sites for the posters based on proximity to local stores and had not taken into consideration whether or not they were likely to be seen by children. Cocktails Ltd finished by saying that they had seven billboard campaigns at sites in Leeds, Hitchin, Cheltenham, Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle and Gloucester, which were all within close proximity to one of their stores. These sites had run continuously for several years and had been chosen specifically because of their locations. They said that they did not run generic billboard campaigns randomly throughout the country and the posters advertised specific stores and were purely used for directional purposes to guide customers travelling by car, on to the correct road.