It has been quite a week for controversial viral videos.

First the pop doyennes Lady Gaga and Beyonce get everyone from feminists to misogynists hot under the collar with the release of a racy, and some say retrograde, film clip featuring lesbian kisses and navel-level necklines.

But while the writhing musicians may have got all the mainstream press (even from broadsheet papers justifying their use of relatively graphic images by wheeling in their rent-a-feminists), the sector played host to its own YouTube ‘no they didn’t’ moment.

A fully-clothed Stephen Pidgeon managed to spark his own cultural row with a minute-long video promoting the Institute of Fundraising’s upcoming direct marketing conference.

The film, which appeared on the Institute’s events website last week, originally showed Pidgeon, chair of its Standards Committee and of direct marketing company Tangible Response, cheekily telling prospective attendees to “forget face-to-face”, because direct mail is where charities will be making their money.

However, by Monday morning this week the clip had been edited to remove the tongue-in-cheek final statement.

Civil Society understands that the changes to the video were made on Friday following complaints from certain areas of the fundraising sector about Pidgeon’s conflict of interest and unnecessary degradation of face-to-face fundraising.

When asked about the edit on Monday by Civil Society, Pidgeon laughed and claimed he knew nothing about it. However, when pressed as to why the video might have been altered, he simply replied: "Political correctness, probably."