Controversial and Banned Adverts

Every year, the UK sees millions of adverts promoting a product, a service, a charity or even trying to gain awareness for a campaign, the vast majority of adverts that are aired on television comply with the ASA's rules.

In 2010, the ASA recieved nearly 29,000 complaints about adverts that were seen by consumers. The ASA assessed the concerns that were made about these adverts and were investigated, resulting in nearly 2,400 adverts were requested to either be changed or were withdrawn from viewing.

In order to have a successful advert, its important that our advert complies with the rules as well, when planning our advert we had to make sure that there was no possibility of a rule being breached.


Barnardo's Campaigns

Barnardo's campaigns are notouriously known for their controversial images they use for their campaigns. Over the years, they have used images such as a young baby with a cockcroach in its mouth and bruises shown on abuse victims.

The image of a young baby with a cockcroach in its mouth was launched in 2003 and recieved more complaints than any other advert that was shown that year, recieving 466 complaints.
The advert was upheld to which Barnardo's said they were 'disappointed' by this decision as their ultimate goal was to spread awareness for child poverty.

Barnardo's is infamous with several images used to create awareness for poverty, including one with another baby with a syringe in its mouth, Barnardo's claimed that the adverts "showed the reality of poverty and its long term effects." Barnard's refused to apologise for the advertisement, arguing that the issue of child poverty was often ignored by the media.


Other Billboard advertisements have also been banned because they have caused some kind of offense to the public.

An advertisement of Tony Blair, advertising ID Cards was released in 2006, was the most complained about advert in that year and was banned because "the barcode on Tony Blair's upper lip made him resemble Hitler, which was offensive."

An advertisement promoting the TV show 'Six Feet Under' caused some controversy as viewers found it to be "offensive, shocking and likely to cause undue distress", the advert was made banned in the UK.

 

This advertisment was released to advertise the 'Quit Smoking' campaign. The advertisement featured two cigarettes to resemble the Twin Towers, with the tagline "No More Killing" to represent the 9/11 attacks. The advertisement was rejected in China for being seen as "inappropriate."

The advert caused offense to some viewers and the advertisement was then banned.

In 2010, the Irn Bru drink released an advertisment to promote their drink, the advert featured animated animals and had a Pied Piper theme to the advert by having the animals follow wherever the protagonist went. However, the advert turns from a happy, bright theme quickly to a dark, disturbing theme when the animals are led to a butcher shop.

The advert had already recieved a restriction given by the ASA, which meant the advert was not allowed to be shown around programmes that were targeted for children, however the advert still recieved a number of complaints arguing that the content was "offensive, irresponsible and distressing to children." The ASA felt its previous restriction to the advert was acceptable and the advert was not banned.

An advertisement advertising a cleaning product caused some offence to its viewers because of its use of "gender stereotypes", its tagline is "So easy a man could do it." Complaints were made against the advert but the ASA disagreed and saw the advert as "light-hearted" and "comical" and was unlikely to cause widespread offence.