UK Sex Shop News

Ann Summers is facing a potential investigation by the UK's advert censors, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after claims that its latest TV ad is too sexual .

Four whingers have kindly complained to the ASA so generating good publicity for Ann Summers from articles such as this.

The ad, which aired for the first time last week during a live episode of the Only Way is Essex , is part of the sex toys retailer's Christmas For Grown Ups campaign.

The advert has a 9pm variant and an 11pm variant. It depicts a plushly decorated Christmas dinner setting only lacking diners. They are soon shown enjoying fireside fun of the sexy kind.

A spokesperson for Ann Summers says:

We have not been made aware of any complaints following the airing of our Christmas advert throughout the last week. Our current advertising campaign was designed in the spirit of Christmas For Grown Ups, and as a responsible retailer we have worked in conjunction with the approving body and the advert has only been aired after the watershed.

Thanks to the blockbuster book series Fifty Shades of Grey, British women are asking Santa for bondage gear and sex toys this year, according to an online sex toy shop.

www.Sextoys.co.uk says that this year top-sellers include whips, cuffs, restraints, ticklers, and paddles, which the company describes as a complete turnaround with couple's bondage taking place over the sales of solo vibrators from last year.

According to Marie Claire UK, the Official Fifty Shades of Grey line of pleasure products, available at Lovehoney.co.uk, sold a third of its entire stock, intended to last until Christmas, in 24 hours. The most popular toys are Inner Goddess Silver Balls, sex toy jiggle balls referenced in the novel.

And according to the New York Post, New York women were flocking to hardware stores in record numbers to purchase natural filament rope used in the trilogy.

A trader has been sentenced to 18 months in jail after admitting making and possessing for sale almost 5,000 fake copies of DVDs from the Premier Videos shop in Dunton Road, Bermondsey, London.

David Cox was sentenced at the Inner London Crown Court after pleading guilty to six counts of infringing the Trade Marks Act 1994, two counts of infringing the Copyright, Patents and Designs Act 1988 and two counts of infringing the Video Recordings Act 1984. A further 1,947 offences were also taken into consideration.

Approximately 1,600 of the DVDs seized from a total of 4,833 were rated R18 , available only from licensed sex shops, which Premier Videos was not.

The prosecution followed a joint inspection in November 2011 by Southwark trading standards and representatives from FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft).

Hardcore pornography seized from unlicensed sex shops in the West End will be destroyed by Westminster council.

Around 20,000 pornographic DVDs and sex toys, worth about £500,000, are to be incinerated after 63 separate raids on sex shops operating without a licence. The seized items are being kept in a storage facility before being sent for burning.

Councillor Frixos Tombolis, deputy cabinet member for public 'elf and premises, weakly tried to justify exorbitant licence fees by trying to claim that these were somehow for the good of the legal shops rather than for morality and politicking reasons:

It can be a long and costly process to close these premises down for not having a licence. Some owners try to hide behind a front of selling souvenirs or mugs and sell unclassified illegal DVDs in the back of the shop.

Sex shops should be banned and fast-food shops, convenience shops and lap-dancing clubs should be phased out of the South William Street area, according to a report by the Dublin City Business Association.

Adult shops are an undesirable use in such a high-end retail area, says the report, which was also published by the Dublin Civic Trust and lays out a plan for how the South William Street area should be developed to make it more enticing for high-end shoppers and tourists.

Sex shops should be banned within 500m of a place of worship or educational institution, the report says. This measure is based on one introduced in New York City by Mayor Rudy Giuliani and successfully dealt with this particular land use issue.

Tattoo shops, tanning salons, casinos, discount shops, phone shops and bookmakers should also not be allowed in the area, which should be more focused on drawing in specialised food shops, art galleries and cafes and restaurants.

It also warns against allowing too many pubs in the area, adding that, a Temple Bar cluster of pubs or 'super-pubs' should be prevented at all costs .

Tom Coffey, chief executive of the Dublin City Business Association said he was confident Dublin City Council would implement the plan which he said should take seven years to complete.

The report uses examples of London's Covent Garden and Copenhagen's Kompagnistrade on how the area might develop.

Artwork of nipple tassel-clad women has adorned the walls of the recently rebranded She Said Emporium since last week. The new painting was part of Tickles' rebranding as part of the local She Said chain.

But the women were made to cover up after nutter complaints to the shop's owner that the art was somehow 'offensive'.

Owner Nic Ramsey said she was forced to paint over the artwork after two women complained.

A painting of Laura Nixon, a Brighton-based Marilyn Monroe look alike, with nipple tassels and a multicoloured fan has adorned the wall for years. So has an animal mural of the Garden of Eden with insects bonking and bugs having threesomes.

Ms Ramsey said:

It breaks my heart and for the artist Req to have to cover up his work is horrible.

If it was a canvas or we hung a picture it would be a piece of art. They are sexy images but there is no nudity on

About 20 women donned nipple tassels to protest against the loss of the mural before it was painted over.

Vanessa Austin Locke, from the business, said the new store would be more playful than the other three shops in the chain in Ship Street Gardens.

A sex shop has fought off nutter opposition to continue trading in Truro for another year.

The Mrs Palm store on Little Castle Street has allegedly been the victim of entrapment and the subject of a discreet survey by opponents.

After three hours of discussion, members of Cornwall Council's miscellaneous licensing committee voted to renew the shop's licence for a further 12 months.

The meeting heard a letter of objection from a Mrs EM Bellamy, which stated:

Others and myself have done a discreet survey of this shop. We discovered not many members of the public enter the shop, except some youngsters coming out of the shop giggling ....

The owner of the shop, Braxton Reynolds, told the committee there had previously been an attempt at entrapment by a man trying to buy goods from the shop after the official closing time on behalf of objectors.

Reynolds and his business partner Nikki Hewitt also successfully applied for a variation of conditions on window displays. Goods can now be displayed but must be cased.

Lovecraft, a licensed sex shop in Cardiff has been selling lingerie, adult books, DVDs and toys since 2001. But now 29 local nutters have objected to the window display.

In a letter to Cardiff council, Severn Primary School headteacher Julie Morris whinged that it featured four scantily female mannequins, one of whom is on her knees in a submissive pose :

I find this display offensive in that it portrays women as sex objects only. 

Many of the children at the school walk past the shop regularly and I am unhappy about them seeing such a negative portrayal of women on a daily basis.

We have over 500 children at our school with many of our children coming from Muslim families. I feel the lack of clothing on the models would offend the many Muslim families in the area.

In her letter of objection, Riverside's Labour councillor Iona Gordon said that as a woman she found the display denigrates women :

But I also object because I represent members of many ethnic minority communities, many of whom observe the Muslim faith. I know both Muslim men and women find the window display offensive on religious grounds.

Labour councillor Richard Cook claimed that the shop was in breach of the Sex Establishment Licensing Policy which states: No window shall contain any sign, advertising material, goods or display likely to cause an offence to persons passing the window.

The objections call for the window display to be blacked-out.

Lovecraft's owner Simon Sternchuss said he was being discriminated against, claiming his displays were no different to that of adult shop Ann Summers or lingerie chain La Senza.

If I had displays or pictures of naked men or women that would be considered offensive, but a dummy in a kneeling position is not offensive to anyone, unless you are a narrow-minded individual.

Update: Nutters Thwarted

4th October 2012. See article from walesonline.co.uk

A sex shop has been given permission to continue with window displays.

Ludicrous complaints had been received by Cardiff council about the mannequins in the windows of Lovecraft, on Cowbridge Road East, Canton. Councillor Iona Gordon claimed that mannequins, in particular one deemed to be in a submissive pose , offended the religious sections of the community as well as being in walking distance of local schools and local health centres.

But the council's Public Protection Committee renewed owner Simon Sternschuss's Sex Establishment Licence and did not impose any conditions on his displays.

Following the meeting Gordon said that she was extremely disappointed that the local community's opinion was ignored by the committee:

I think it's really bad that the decision has gone this way. We will continue to lobby and make that man take his mannequins down.