A soft drinks company in Chelmsford has escaped criticism from an advertising watchdog after promoting its latest product.

An advert for the new drink, produced by Britvic, showed an exploding bottle with the comment "Men love exploding things".

It appeared in the magazines GQ, FHM and Maxim and one woman reader from Buckinghamshire contacted the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) claiming it was in bad taste following the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement.

She said the advertisement was "irresponsible" because it condoned and encouraged violent, aggressive and socially unacceptable behaviour.

The advert included three pictures with captions showing how they made the exploding bottle.

But the ASA failed to uphold the complaint, saying that readers of the magazines would regard the advert as humorous and unlikely to offend.

They added that it was also unlikely to incite violence, and although it might be seen in Northern Ireland it was not likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

Britvic, in its defence, said the advert was one in a series that referred in a humorous way to the "enthusiasms of man".

The Chelmsford-based soft drinks giant argued it had not condoned violent behaviour and the adverts were not about bombs and explosions but inspired by men's interest in the demolition of buildings and the technical detail of how that was done.

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