Controversial adverts in a Westfield suit store have been covered up by shopping centre managers following complaints that the posters were too explicit.

Shoppers at the Shepherd's Bush centre were shocked by the Suit Supply campaign, which features a series of images of scantily clad women in sexually suggestive positions, including one of a woman touching her exposed breast while sitting next to a suited man.

The ads by the Amsterdam-based company generated an online protest through social network Twitter after 23-year-old blogger Joey Abbis-Stubbs described her shock at seeing the posters during a visit to the mall.

Writing on her Beyond Retrograde blog, the Westbourne Grove women's charity worker said: "As a family friendly shopping centre, I am sure many parents would be upset to have their children exposed to such material whilst taking them to the newly opened indoor ice-skating rink.

The second issue is the blatant objectification of women. We are sadly used to seeing women being sexualised in order to sell products, and many perfume and jeans adverts are notorious for their risque content, but these images are another level."

Westfield staff entered the store to cover up those images which were thought to be too explicit, and some were due to be taken down today.

A Westfield spokeswoman said: "Westfield takes seriously the desire of our shoppers to have an enjoyable experience when they visit our centres. Retailers within our centres are responsible for their own advertising and in-store campaigns, which in most cases are rolled out nationally to all their stores. We are taking this matter very seriously and have approached Suit Supply to request the immediate removal of the offensive images."

The Suit Supply campaign has also been referred to the Advertising Standards Agency, which has so far received 24 complaints. It has no power to crack down on in-store advertising and has passed the complaints on to Consumer Direct.

Suit Supply owner Fokke de Jong said the firm is now working on a censored version of the image which generated the most controversy, which he hopes to have back up in the store within 24 hours.

He said: "This has nothing to do with pornography. It's a very well done artistic campaign which is a good mix of humour, style and sex – that's exactly what passion is about.

"I appreciate that showing a nipple in a public space could be offensive to some groups of the population visiting Westfield. "But I'm very surprised at what a nipple can do in London and I'm surprised by the sort of publicity we're getting."