Sex sells, but French fashion chain La Redoute's laissez-faire attitude to nudity is a little de trop even for Gallic tastes. The retailer's website shocked visitors with an image of a naked man frolicking in the sea in the background of a children's clothing shoot. The picture shows four adorable Redoute-clad children lined up on the sand, smiling at the camera and seemingly unaware of the naturist behind them.

As reported in U.K. magazine The Stylist, La Redoute is embarrassed about the mistake. The company has removed the photograph from its website, apologized on Facebook and Twitter, and promised to be more careful in the future.

What it hasn't done is offer an explanation for how the picture slipped through the editing process without the naked man's being spotted and airbrushed out, or say what it's going to do about the photo's appearance on P. 149 of the latest Redoute catalog.

Tippex has already capitalized on the blunder with a Facebook ad that creates a pun out of the retailer's name and the French verb "redouter," meaning fear or dread. The ad, which even borrows the retailer's logo, reads: "On REDOUTE tous de faire des erreurs" ("We all dread making mistakes").