The prize for worst advertising slogan of the year has been won by a bike rental firm in Castricum for the phrase “put the fun between your legs”.

Second in the competition was sewing machine company Rijksers Naaimachinespecialist, with “have a naai’s day”, while sexual innuendo was back in the third-placed offering – “everything for stuffing your pussy” – from cat specialist firm 4Cats.

Marieke van der Zande, owner of the Tuut-tuut bike rental firm, said winning the prize was a surprise and that the slogan had never been a deliberate choice.

“We had printed the slogan on our tshirts for a laugh but when we moved to bigger premises a friend said we should put it on the shop window,” she told the competition organisers. “He then ordered the sticker for us.”

Tefke van Dijk, a freelance journalist and text writer who launched the competition 12 years ago with Tilburg University’s Christine Liebrecht, told Dutch News that it was notable how many of the slogans contained English this year.

“Sometimes the slogans start out as a joke dreamed up in the pub,” she said. “Then the next day people decide they are good enough to use. But you do have to ask if the slogans really are that bad. Some people vote for them because they think they are funny. So is the worst slogan really the winner, or the one that came last?”

Not every unwitting participant in the competition got the joke. Just outside the top three was an animal crematorium in Heerhugoward which said it did not mean to make a pun in its slogan “Voor een warm afscheid van uw geliefde huisdier “ (for a warm send-off for your beloved pet).