The controversial ‘Elf Behaving Badly’ Christmas campaign by Poundland featuring a child’s elf toy in a series of sexualised poses has been banned for being irresponsible and likely to cause widespread offence.

It generated a huge amount of social media coverage after it appeared on the retailer’s Twitter and Facebook pages, much of it to begin with speculating as to whether the sites had been hacked.

Poundland claimed it as theirs and the notoriety helped the business achieve its most successful December since it began trading in 1990.

However during it, tea company Twinings accused Poundland of “misusing” its product after the retailer tweeted an image of an elf dangling a Twinings teabag over a female doll in a simulation of a sex act.

Another ad on December 20 showed the elf playing a game of strip poker with three unclothed dolls.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 85 complaints that the ads were offensive for their depiction of toy characters and other items in a sexualised manner and were unsuitable to appear where children could see them.

Poundland said the double entendres used throughout the campaign would not have been understood by children, adding that Twitter and Facebook had policies preventing under-13s from creating accounts with them.

It said a “large number” of people found the campaign to be humorous, engaging and “in line with what it meant to be British”, adding it did not intend to offend anyone.

The ASA noted the campaign was based on a toy elf, which resembled the popular children’s Christmas tradition known as “Elf on the Shelf” from the book of the same name.

It noted Poundland’s Facebook and Twitter pages were not age-gated and could therefore be seen by anyone.

The ASA said other campaign images made obvious sexual references. It also noted the strip poker and teabag images presented the female dolls “in a manner which could be seen as demeaning to women”.

It said: “We considered these ads were irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence by depicting a child’s toy in relation to such sexual acts, therefore breaching the Code.”

It ruled that the ads must not appear again and told Poundland to ensure its advertising was presented with “a sense of responsibility and did not cause serious or widespread offence”.

Poundland appeared unrepentant in its response.

In a statement on behalf of its “naughty elf”, Poundland said: “Britain’s the home of saucy postcards, Carry On films and panto, so I’m sad the ASA found my double entendres hard to swallow.

“At least it’s only 84 people who had a sense of humour failure compared to the tens of thousands who got the joke and liked and shared my posts online.”