RISQUE billboards across Barnet promoting longer lasting sex have been removed following numerous complaints.

The signs, which read "Making Love? Do it...longer!", were part of an ad campaign run by the Advanced Medical Institute (AMI) promoting treatments for Erectile Dysfunction and premature ejaculation.

The AMI decided to removed the posters, 120 in total, following nine complaints made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The complaints, first lodged on September 15, cited the billboards as "offensive" and "unsuitable for public display", and also objected to the placement of the advertisements near schools.

Peter Riley, managing director of AMI, said he failed to understand what people were complaining about.

"We mention love, not sex, why is that a problem?" he said.

"What we're doing is tackling a medical problem. Since we launched in the UK one year ago, we've had 90,000 phone calls. We're tackling a serious problem."

He added: "Why is it you're allowed to advertise sex in a movie, such as 'Sex and the City', but if it's a medical advertisement like ours, you're not.

"I find it absurd. I don't get it."

It is not the first time the AMI has been critised for distasteful advertising. Last year the company sparked hundreds of furious letters to the ASA when it emblazoned the phrase "Want longer lasting sex?" on giant orange posters across the capital.

Councillor Brian Gordon, assistant cabinet member for policy and performance, contacted the ASA after receiving "a number of" complaints about two posters in the borough, located near Five Ways Corner in Watford Way, Mill Hill, and along the Colindale section of the Edgware Road.

The councillor said: "There should be an understanding that certain things are indecent. This poster, talking about longer lasting sex in such a prominent way, vulgarises and cheapens something that should be seen as sacred.

"There is no question that such a poster can pervert the minds of many right-thinking people, including particular children, who are very impressionable."

Father-of-six Lawrence Littlestone, 61, from St Margaret's Road, Edgware, also filed a formal complaint because he was offended by the prominence of the posters.

He said: "I don't find the content offensive in itself, but I do find the siting of it offensive.

"There are five primary schools in this neighbourhood and children are being carried to and from school along the A5 every day. They will see it and start asking questions. I know this, as I am a parent and my nine-year-old asked me what it was all about, and I had to come up with some glib response.

"I don't object to such an advert in an adult magazine or a newspaper, where children wouldn't see it, but I find it offensive that it is so in your face."

The ASA will still consider the complaint, despite the signs being removed.

Matt Wilson, spokesman for the ASA, said: "Once the investigation has been finalised we will publish our adjudication, and if the billboard is in breach of the adverting code it will be prohibited from appearing again."