Scouts take offence at 'puerile' mobile phone ad

Phones 4u launched the campaign this month, which includes a character called "The Scout Master", labelled with a "No" sticker indicating he is unlikely to have more than 50 friends' numbers saved on his mobile phone.

One of at least 20 bloggers reacting to the ad, Scout leader Richard Crowe, said: "This kind of cheap shot degrades all the good volunteer work done across the UK. It just shows how puerile and uninformed some people in the media world can be and projects an outdated image of Scouting today."

But Russell Braterman, Phones 4u marketing director, said: "We like Scout masters and have a lot of respect for them. The campaign is not meant to be taken at face value. We apologise for any offence it may have caused."

Phones 4u said it "intentionally represented an out of date image of a scout leader and used terminology that is not currently used, so as to imply that this was not to be taken literally." A spokeswoman said the ad would not be featured in press again, although she admitted it was too late to pull the ad from some monthly titles that had already gone to press.

A Scout Association spokeswoman said: "We are dealing with this matter directly with the company concerned." It says the appointment of adventurer Bear Grylls as chief Scout has led to a much-needed surge in interest from adult volunteers.

The Scout Association is looking to plug a 6,600 shortfall in volunteers.