An anti-hunting campaign by the high street cosmetics chain Lush has been banned following 129 complaints.

A leaflet by the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) and distributed in Lush stores read: “Hunting ban, what hunting ban?”, while a postcard by Lush stated: “The hunts are still at it! The foxes still need your help”, with a note inviting customers to forward it to their local police chief constable.

An online sales promotion on the Lush website for Mrs Fox Bubble Bar said 100 cent of the proceeds would go to the HSA and included information about the organisation and fox hunting.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said 129 people raised a range of issues with the campaign, including complaints that it unfairly denigrated hunts and hunters and misleadingly implied that hunts were intentionally and regularly breaking the law.

Complainants argued that the campaign misleadingly implied that the Hunting Act was not being properly enforced and that any form of hunting with dogs was illegal, and that a claim that “hunting hounds usually lead short lives and are often killed and fed back to the pack” could not be substantiated.

Defending the campaign, Lush said it regularly undertook animal welfare campaigns and aimed to raise awareness of the 2004 Hunting Act and highlight alleged breaches of the act and its perceived limitations.

It added that the campaign did not use any graphic or shocking images, bad language or demeaning or abusive names, and believed customers were unlikely to find it offensive.

The ASA upheld three specific complaints, saying there was not enough robust evidence to support the campaign’s claim that hunts were intentionally and frequently breaking the law.

The claim that the act was not being properly enforced was misleading as there was no evidence to suggest that police would not enforce the law, and claims that hounds were fed back to the pack was based on anecdotal evidence and insufficiently robust, the ASA said.

The ASA ruled that the ads must not appear again in their current form.

Lush’s managing director Mark Constantine said: “We intend to continue our campaign against fox hunting.”