Top-flight French football club Rennes risked drawing the wrath of the feminist movement by launching an advertising campaign based at female fans featuring a sex toy with the logo "Venez vibrer"(come to vibrate).

The Britanny-based Ligue 1 outfit posted a photo of a vibrating sex toy, in the shape of a black miniature duck wearing a red and black club scarf, on its website staderennais.com.

"Five euros for all women," said the club of the price of tickets for the Rennes v St Etienne match on March 8, which is international women's day.

The campaign was largely supported on the club's facebook page, as the regional daily Le Telegramme asked: "A sexist invitation?"

A Rennes spokesman countered that insinuation, telling AFP that the advertisement was "a creative, off-beat choice, humorous but certainly not sexist".