The thing is that everyone watches TV together in India; it's family viewing. And if an ad affects that, then that's when the complaints start coming - because people are not comfortable watching it with their grandmother, son or granddaughter. It's not an age thing - there will be young people who enjoy this ad and others who don't. An advert must be inclusive; it needs to appeal across the board.

There was a huge lobby who wrote to complain about this ad to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). You have to respect a collective field. There's no point in getting into moral dilemmas and wasting time. The way ASCI works is based on complaints. They do give a chance to the advertisers by formal letter, and if they can reply with reasons deemed adequate, then the ASCI will let the advert continue to run. But if not...

As an advertiser I've never felt that my creativity has been constrained by false moral righteousness. I think that India is fairly liberal, but I do also think that there are certain aspects of sex and religion that should not be brought into advertising. Personally I've had to apologise on national TV for an advert I created. It was about pepper spray. We stated things too brutally, and I agreed that we had. The ban didn't stop us from doing controversial work afterwards, but it did teach me how India thinks and I realised that I have to be sensitive. Creativity has to work with the people receiving it, and those people are different in India than in Europe or other areas. Being cool is not all about being young here. Many people find their parents the coolest thing in their lives. It's not cool to be edgy here. It's just considered weird."

Both of these ads, for underwear brands Amul Macho and Lux Cosy, were banned in 2007.