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An advert for a Gateshead car leasing company that mocked “BMW bum boys” has been banned over its use of “homophobic language”.

The Facebook ad for the lease of a Fiat Spider by Ling’s Cars was reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after appearing in the complainant’s news feed in February.

It read: “Who needs a V8 Kia Stinker or a BMW bum boy car, when you have the best small convertible ever?”

The ASA has now ruled the advert must not appear again after finding the term “would be regarded as homophobic by many people”.

But Ling’s Cars owner Ling Valentine has hit back on social media, saying a “BMW bum boy” was “a common meme on the internet and has absolutely no offensive connotations”.

When approached by the ASA, she offered to change the wording to “BMW batty boy”, but was told it was “equally offensive for the same reason”.

According to a ruling published this week, Ling’s Cars “did not believe the term ‘BMW bum boy’ was offensive and thought it was a well-known term for someone who owned a modified BMW vehicle and drove aggressively”.

The firm also said the advert was targeted at people above the age of 24 and to those who had an interest in cars.

But a complaint against it was upheld, with the decision saying: “The ASA considered that ‘bum boy’ was widely understood as a derogatory term directed at homosexual men and that the use of that term to describe a vehicle would therefore be regarded as homophobic by many people.

“Whilst we acknowledged Ling’s Cars comments on their target audience, we considered that a person’s age and their interest in cars had no relevance as to whether or not they would be offended by homophobic language.

“We therefore concluded that the ad was likely to cause serious offence to some readers.

“We acknowledged Ling’s Cars suggested change of wording to ‘BMW batty boy’, but considered that was not significantly different to the original term and was equally offensive for the same reason.”

(Image: lingscars.com)

Posting the decision on Facebook, Ms Valentine hit out at the ASA and the “snowflake” who complained about the advert.

She wrote: “They claim that ‘bum boy’ is a ‘derogatory term directed at homosexual men’, when we all know that in fact, in the context of BMW car adverts, ‘BMW BUM BOY’ indicates...’... a BMW owner, who modifies their BMW with (typically) tinted windows, chrome alloys, wide tyres and extremely large exhaust pipe, driving in an aggressively yobbish or typically BMW manner without indicating.’”

Ling also posted a link to her email correspondence with the ASA, in which she said: “I’m so sorry that someone has complained to the ASA.

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“I haven’t had any complaints since DeLorean-gate a few years ago when there was mass outrage over a pretend new car that I advertised.

“BMW bum boy is a common meme on the internet and has absolutely no offensive connotations to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age.

“Impossible for me to be like that anyway as I am Chinese origin, 45, female and very tolerant.”

On her website, Ling claims to be “the UK’s hardest working car leasing provider”.

And she adds: “Don’t be deceived... I may be a scruffy Chinese girl, but I have more happy new-car customers and supply more new cars than many of the anonymous (and some big-name!) leasing companies out there, combined.”