Gay hook-up ad banned by Cardiff council after residents complain it’s ‘disgusting’
An ad promoting ‘non-stop’ gay hook-ups has been pulled from bus stops in Cardiff, after residents branded it ‘disgusting’.
The poster for the smartphone app Squirt had appeared on bus stops around the city, picturing two men, one with his shirt open, above the phrase “non-stop hook-ups”.
However, after complaints from residents that the ads are inappropriate, Cardiff city council has taken swift action to pull them from bus stops.
According to WalesOnline, the ads attracted complaints on Twitter, with one user writing: “Must be struggling for advertising @Cardiffbus if you’re resorting to promoting casual sex? #inappropriate”
Another told the council to pull the posters down, branding them “disgusting”.
The City of Cardiff confirmed it had asked for the posters to be removed – after initially claiming that they had not been pre-approved.
A council spokesperson told WalesOnline: “The council has a contract with Clear Channel for the maintenance of bus shelters throughout the city. This includes managing advertising displays.
“Following a complaint about advertising that was considered inappropriate on two bus shelters on St Mary Street and Castle Street, the Council contacted Clear Channel and the posters have now been removed.”
However, Clear Channel insists that the poster had passed the Advertising Standards Agency’s “pre-vetting” process.
The spokesperson said: “We carefully evaluate all of the advertising we carry on our sites. The advertising we currently carry for Squirt.Org was pre-vetted by the ASA before being displayed, and is part of a nationwide campaign.
“Following a request from our partners at Cardiff city council, we removed two of the Squirt.Org advertisements in the city centre.”
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Squirt has faced similar action elsewhere over its public advertising.
The app’s ads were previously removed from trains in Canada – after the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) claimed they encouraged gay commuters to “break the law”.
However, the ads were cleared by the advertising watchdog in the Netherlands, despite a number of complaints.
