Harvey Nichols in the UK came under fire this week for their latest advertising campaign. Meant to promote their summer sale, the posters depict models that have apparently wet their pants with excitement. The slogan reads: “The Harvey Nichols Sale…Try To Contain Your Excitement.” It was sent to their distribution list, consisting of thousands of shoppers across Britain. But not everyone thought the ads were funny, and many have since complained that it is “crass” and “off-putting”. 

Defending the ads, a spokesman for Harvey Nichols said:

We developed the campaign to promote our summer sale and capture the excitement in a light-hearted, humorous way. The images in our advertising were designed to be a visual representation of a well-known phrase. During the production of the campaign, we researched the use of this expression in popular culture and social media and were satisfied that is is both commonplace and invariably used in a playful, inoffensive manner, which was in keeping with the tongue-in-cheek spirit in which we intended our campaign to be taken.

Check out the rest of the ads below and decide for yourself if they are really that bad:

[Source: Daily Mail]