Ad description
A paid-for Facebook ad for Wrappiness, an online décor and gifts retailer, seen 13 April 2026. The ad included two images of underwear. The first stated, “FUCK ME MASTER Daniel”. The second image featured an image of a face on the crotch of the underwear and text that stated, “DELICIOUS MEAL ONLY SERVE FOR LUCAS”.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the ad was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.
Response
Wrappiness UK did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Wrappiness UK’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
The CAP Code stated that ads must not contain anything that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence and that marketing communications may be distasteful without necessarily breaching that rule.
The ad included two images of underwear. One of the images featured the text, “FUCK ME MASTER Daniel”. We considered that the word “FUCK” was a highly offensive word that should not generally be used in advertising. The second image depicted a person’s face on the crotch area of underwear, alongside the text “DELICIOUS MEAL ONLY SERVE FOR LUCAS”. We considered that consumers were likely to understand this image and wording, along with the wording on the first product, as making crude sexual references, and which were likely to cause offence to some consumers especially when encountered unexpectedly in advertising.
The ad appeared on Facebook, which was a medium likely to reach a broad audience. In the absence of a response from the advertiser, we had not seen any evidence that the ad had been carefully targeted at an audience unlikely to be offended by its content. We therefore considered it was likely to cause serious or widespread offence in the context in which it appeared. For those reasons, we concluded that the ad breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 4.1 (Harm and offence).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Wrappiness UK to ensure their ads did not cause serious or widespread offence, including by avoiding explicit language and sexual references in untargeted media. We referred the matter to CAP’s Compliance Team.
