THE US clothing company Lee Jeans is to spend an estimated £500,000 in Ireland on a major new advertising campaign. Lee employs 900 people in Ireland.

Lee has declined to reveal bow much of its new $20 million (£12.7 million) European campaign will be spent here. However, industry sources expect its Irish advertising bill to be about £500,000 between now and June. The new Lee Jeans campaign has already attracted a degree of controversy here. RTE has said that one of the two new television advertisements, which depicts stripper Gypsy Rose Lee peeling off her jeans, cannot be shown before 10 p.m., as the station considered it too provocative for younger audiences.