Danish public broadcaster DR has published a roundup of five advertising campaigns that backfired in Denmark, prompted by this summer’s debate over a Sinful bus poster promising “100 % orgasmegaranti.”
DR reported on August 7, 2026 that the poster from the sex toy retailer Sinful showed three vibrators alongside the orgasm guarantee slogan. According to DR, the ad drew criticism over the course of the summer and has now been replaced by a new Sinful poster. Those responsible for the bus advertising describe the replacement as somewhat less provocative.
The broadcaster uses that episode as a starting point for revisiting earlier Danish campaigns that met public resistance. The list runs from travel and aviation to private hospitals and betting.
First on DR’s list is a 2016 newspaper advertisement from the travel company Spies. It encouraged Danes to support the local population on the Greek island of Lesbos by taking a holiday there, under an image of a woman on a sun lounger. DR notes that the campaign triggered criticism in the media and on the company’s Facebook page, including from Anders Ladekarl, then secretary-general of the Danish Red Cross.
DR also points to the private hospital Nygart, whose bus posters asking “nye bryster?” have appeared in some form since 2007. Early in 2023, the regional transport company Midttrafik banned bus advertising with sexual content. The breast ads returned about two months later, DR writes, after the argument that advertising cosmetic surgery was not prohibited.
The list further includes the airline SAS and its 2020 film “what is truly scandinavian,” which argued that several Scandinavian traditions originated abroad. Following strong criticism, the airline removed the video and later posted a shortened version, according to DR.
Regulators involved in two cases
Two of the five cases ended with Danish authorities. The drinks producer Cult ran a Cult Shaker campaign in 2009 with the slogan “Party now, apologize later,” which Alkoholreklamenævnet criticized in a decision the same year. A separate Cult video from 2009, featuring a boy behaving violently after drinking an energy drink, was reported to the Consumer Ombudsman.
According to the case page from Forbrugerombudsmanden, the district court in Aarhus fined the producer 100,000 kroner in 2015 for using violence in advertising aimed at children. DR’s fifth example is the Danske Spil betting campaign from the 2000s with the slogan “Der er så meget kvinder ikke forstår,” fronted by television personality Janni Ree.
DR writes that the Oddset campaign was criticized for portraying women in a degrading way. A 2004 decision by Radio- og tv-nævnet records a complaint that the television ads were gender-discriminatory. The board found that the spots were intended as humorous irony rather than a denigration of women.
