Nip / Tuck Ad now un-sexy enough for the Tube

You may remember that London Underground would not let the ad below for Nip / Tuck appear on the Tube as it was deemed too sexy. This led to quite a long discussion in the comments:


Now a less sexy (although to my eyes, hardly any different) ad is plastered all over the Tube.


There's a little less flesh from the girl on the right, and the girl on the left has longer stockings on and no suspender belt.

I would have paid good money to have sat in on the approval process for this. I like to think it would have gone along the following lines:

Guy from CBS Outdoor (who sell Transport for London - TfL's advertising) - So TfL as you know there's been a lot of coverage about this ad being banned. The creatives at FX's agency are proposing something new.

TfL Rep - Mmm are the girls wearing more appropriate clothing now? I hear that the Amish do a very nice line in sensible ladies wear.

CBS - Well they've not exactly gone that far.

TfL - So is there still a lot of bare flesh on display?

CBS - Well not exactly a LOT.

TfL - How much flesh? Can we see cleavage and bare midriffs?

CBS - Well some of the midriffs have gone.

TfL - What about the woman in the suspenders? We can't have her. Even though we run lots of ads for Dove with women in their bras and knickers, this is totally different.

CBS - I think we could get them to ditch the suspenders and make the stockings a bit longer.

TfL - So remind me how much were they planning to spend again?

CBS - It's a lot. It's part of a multi million pound campaign and they said they'll give it to the railway and buses if we don't want it.

TfL - Oh go on then, just make sure there's only one bare midriff.

CBS - Anything else?

TfL - Yes, make sure they get rid of that red line at the bottom, that makes it really provocative.

I wonder how far away from the truth that was?