The advertising watchdog ruled that the image was too racy to appear on billboards.

The couple pictured is naked from the waist up, and the man's hand is inside the waistband of his companion's pants. He holds a perfume bottle that partially obscures her breasts.

According to the ASA's adjudication, the poster - which is no longer appearing on billboards - was "sexually suggestive, likely to cause serious or widespread offence, and unsuitable to be seen by children."

The ad also appeared in several major lifestyle magazines.

Calvin Klein described the perfume ad as "tastefully photographed and not sexually gratuitous or explicit," and argued that "sexual images were commonly used in advertisements for perfume and that the human body was more explicitly depicted in works of art and sculpture."

The ASA has certainly taken Calvin's side in the past.

In May, the group gave a thumbs-up to a billboard featuring Aussie hunk Travis Fimmel wearing an incredibly snug pair of white briefs.

The 60-foot poster was removed from its Oxford Street perch when people began complaining that it was causing traffic jams.

However, the ASA dismissed all complaints, saying that the ad is relevant to the product.

Last fall the ASA also stood behind a fashion ad for Ben Sherman.

It ruled that a poster picturing a male model atop an autopsy table, with the copy "cut from a different cloth," was acceptable and "unlikely to cause serious or widespread offense."