Citing poor taste, The Toronto Star is refusing to run an ad by duvet retailer and long-time advertiser Down Under.

The ad, designed by Big Black Hat of Toronto, offers a free condom with the purchase of every duvet as a ‘back to school special.’

‘College shouldn’t be all work and no fun,’ states the ad. ‘Sooner or later, you’re going to christen that brand-new, soft, luxuriant duvet.’

Condom maker Trojan has donated product for the promotion.

Phil Bingley, interim director of communications for the Star, published by Toronto-based Torstar, says he thinks the ad is funny, but says newspaper management decided not to run the ad because the Star is a ‘family’ newspaper.

He says kids would likely see the ad, especially since it was to be placed in Star Week, the paper’s weekly tv guide. ‘We would get a lot of flack,’ says Bingley.

‘It’s very unreasonable,’ says Michael Moss, partner and writer at Big Black Hat, of the newspaper’s decision.

‘They make these value judgments after ads are submitted and it creates a hassle.’

Moss says his agency has done far more outrageous creative and there has never been a problem between the newspaper and his agency before.

In fact, award-winning ads created by the agency for eye magazine, Torstar’s alternative entertainment weekly, featured ‘dog turds and [marijuana] joints,’ according to Moss.

To avoid this sort of misunderstanding, Moss says the newspaper should have strict guidelines that outline what is, and what isn’t, permitted in ads. ‘You can’t have nearly-free speech,’ he says.

‘In questions of taste, it’s always going to be subjective,’ says the Star’s Bingley. ‘It’s a judgment call.’