A ROW has broken out between feminist campaigners and a Hampshire private hire firm because of a drink-drive campaign poster.

Feminist campaigners have labelled the controversial poster by West Quay Cars as sexist.

The poster warns against the dangers of drink driving and features a picture of a woman with a caption saying 'If I start to look sexy book a taxi'.

But now the University of Southampton Feminist Society are calling for it fellow students to boycott the firm.

A letter to the Daily Echo from one campaigner read: “I was horrified to see a recent ad by West Quay cars which featured middle aged larger woman with the words "if I look sexy, book a taxi" advising people not to drive drunk or "make bad decisions after drinking".

“It's disgusting that in 2015 sexism is alive and well in Southampton enough to be an acceptable ad campaign, especially in the New Year when companies too often try to make a profit over negative self body image.”

However bosses at West Quay Cars have hit back at critics of the posters, which were distributed to 166 venues in Southampton and Eastleigh in November, saying that the 16 complaints about the posters were not received until January 1.

The company has denied that the posters are sexist and added there were no complaints about the male version of the poster.

Before the campaign was launched the company canvassed 603 people, and received only 5 complaints on the female poster and 4 of the male one.

Manager of West Quay Cars, Lee Haynes, said: “We are disappointed that our annual anti Drink Drive campaign for 2014 has generated some negative feedback, we apologise for any offence that may have been caused by either of the posters.

“We refute the claim that either our advertising for West Quay Cars as a company is sexist or discriminatory in anyway, of the 22 staff employed within the company 16 are female and we have a diverse range of ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation within that group.

“We accept that we cannot please everyone all of the time, our safety message of “don't drive under the influence” is delivered we believe in a lighthearted and humorous way as befits the festive season.”