A cheeky advert promoting running shoes has been given the bum’s rush by Glasgow councillors.

The city fathers banned a global Reebok promotion promising a better bottom and legs … as the ad contained the word ‘bum’.

The campaign image, showing a pair of bare legs sporting Reebok EasyTone running shoes, was to be put on Glasgow taxis as part of a £4million worldwide marketing campaign along with the slogan ‘Better Legs And Bum With Every Step’, and the Greaves store brand.

But the council’s licensing committee decided the advert – which has been shown in New York’s Times Square and other cities– was too racy … despite the fact that the ‘bum’ in question would not have been visible on the taxis.

At the meeting which vetoed the proposal, one councillor asked why there were legs in an advert for running shoes and “why do they need to go right up to her backside?”

Committee member Ann Marie Millar, who voted for refusal, queried the relevance of the advert to the product and, when the ­proclaimed benefits were explained, said that as she did not wear trainers, she “wouldn’t know”.

The EasyTone ad campaign, thought to be the biggest TV spend of any sports brand since 2004, has been on billboards in New York, Boston, Berlin, Barcelona and Madrid, and has run on British TV.

The licensing committee’s policy on taxi ads rules out those “which display nude or semi-nude figures in a sexually provocative manner”.

Stephen McCranor of Greaves said he was baffled by the ruling as the city’s taxis carried ads for lapdancing clubs.