THE owner of a Northampton furniture store who was banned from using an “offensive” advertisement, has appealed the decision by the Advertising Standards Authority.

Last month, the ASA found an advert reading “The Sofa King – Where the prices are Sofa King Low!” was likely to cause serious or widespread offence because it contained a derivative of a swear word.

But Mark Kypta, who has run Sofa King, in Towcester Road, Far Cotton, and used the slogan for 10 years, has argued the decision was not consistent with similar cases, including the ASA’s rejection of 52 complaints against Burger King advertisements in 2010.

The Sofa King advertisement received three complaints in August 2011. In its adjudication, the ASA stated that the advertisement alluded to a word so likely to offend that it should not be used in advertisements at all.

But Mr Kypta argued this was not consistent with a case against a Barnados advertisement that appeared in two national newspapers in 2007.

Two readers complained the F-word appeared explicitly five times, but the ASA allowed it in the context the advertisement was designed to be “hard-hitting”.

In 2010, 52 complaints were made against a Burger King advertising campaign that used phrases such as “king tasty”, “king delicious” and “no king parking”.

Again the ASA allowed the advertisements, stating they were unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence because they did not contain any explicit bad language.

Mr Kypta argued this reasoning should apply to the Sofa King’s advertising too.

He said: “I sell sofas, I am the self-proclaimed king of furniture and my prices are genuinely low.

“The support and encouragement I have had from the local community and much further afield, since the ASA announced its decision, has been amazing. The ASA’s decision was wrong and I will fight this all the way.”

Mr Kypta said he had planned to expand The Sofa King business into Milton Keynes and Leicester, but had been forced to put the plans on hold while the review took place.