Tesco Mobile have had their adverts banned after receiving 52 complaints over replacing expletives with food names.
The adverts were posted in national newspaper, Twitter post and outdoor posters and contained the words “shiitake” and “pistachio” as allusions to swear words in ways that “were likely to cause serious and widespread offence”, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled.
The paid-for Twitter post, seen in February, mentioned, “What a load of shiit” in large text, with an image of a mushroom next to it. The mushroom then rolled away to reveal the text “shiitake”.
