The campaign, which ran across stores nationally and on its official website, featured 12 human mouths displaying various artworks. One image featured a mouth sewn together with orange stitching, intended to represent a signature design element of denim brand Nudie Jeans.
The Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) found the campaign breached a section of the Advertiser Code of Ethics. Complaints made to the board alleged the image was too violent to run across the retailer's store windows.
One complainant noted: "I feel it portrays a form of violence that should not be displayed in public places."
General Pants Co said the campaign, which represented a total of 11 denim brands offered by the retailer, was not intended to cause offence to consumers.
"The idea to replicate [Nudie's] orange stitch across the area of the mouth was never intended to signify violence, self mutilation or any act of sado-sexual nature," it noted in a statement to the ASB. "The stitch was a repetition of the Nudie 'N' as is present in their logo and on the back patch of their jeans."
General Pants Co has now ended the campaign.