Advertising Standards Authority rules that use of expletive was likely to cause serious offence to some recipients

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Spotify has been censured by the advertising watchdog for sending out an email promoting a Lily Allen song that appeared to tell customers: "Fuck You".

The online music streaming service sent out a promotional email that included the text: "Have you heard this song by Lily Allen? Give it a try. Fuck you".

The Advertising Standards Authority banned the promotion after receiving a complaint from a member of the public that the ad was offensive.

Spotify argued that the use of the swearword did not breach the UK advertising code, because the email was designed to recommend songs to users and one of the tracks was titled Fuck You.

The company said the artist named the song, so it could not be construed as a deliberate attempt to "shock consumers or to drive traffic to [Spotify's] website by being controversial".

The promotional email, for which under-18s had to gain adult consent to join and under 13-year-olds are banned, also recommended nine other songs. Spotify said it sends about 36m recommendations to users globally every month.

The ASA said while it understood that Spotify users would understand Fuck You was the title of a song, "recipients of emails from a general online music service would not expect them to include swearing".

"We considered the use of 'fuck' was likely to cause serious offence to some recipients of such emails and therefore concluded that the ad breached the [UK advertising] code," the ASA said.

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