One might expect an ad from an agency called Barbarella, after the voluptuous title character played by Jane Fonda in the 1968 movie, to get some people’s backs up.

And so it has.

For the second time in a few months, billboards for Swatch watches have drawn the ire of private citizens and MediaWatch, the feminist media watchdog, and a request from the Canadian Advertising Foundation that the offending ads be removed.

But Michael Abson, general manager of SMH Canada in Toronto, the Canadian branch of the Swiss-based company that markets Swatch watches, is adamant the billboards in Toronto and Montreal will stay up until their contract expires at the end of this month.

And, says Abson, who is clearly milking the billboard bust-up for all it is worth, there is no guarantee the next Swatch ad ­ from the Barbarella agency in Milan, Italy ­ will not be just as provocative to some people as the advertisement that went up on six boards in Toronto and another half-dozen in Montreal.

Abson says the complaints, save one, have all come from Toronto.

That lone complaint came from Vancouver, where the offending material appeared as a print ad in the Georgia Straight alternative newspaper.

Suzanne Keeler, vice-president of business and public affairs at the caf, says after a written complaint ­ the only kind the caf will act on ­ it was decided following a meeting of the caf’s Advertising Standards Council to ask Swatch to pull the offending ads.

The caf has no authority to order the advertisements removed.

The number of complaints logged about the newest Swatch ad, a painting of a ’50s Vanity Fair-style woman in a bikini whose knotted top a young boy is trying to undo, is hard to quantify. This is because they were made independently to the caf, Swatch, MediaWatch and the cbc (after Abson appeared on a phone-in show) over a several month period.

But it is fair to say they do not total, by letter and phone, more than 50.

The Vanity Fair-style billboard is being used to advertise Swatch’s line of Varnish Fair watches.

Swatch was last in hot water in Toronto with an ad showing a headless woman displaying most of her ample cleavage. She was not wearing a watch.