The Advertising Standards Authority opens its annual report, published today, with a look at underwear. The Gossard Glossies poster campaign, with the headline: “Who said a woman can’t get pleasure from something soft?” was the most complained about advertisement last year. The Daily Mail, which encouraged readers to complain about the campaign, could have had a hand in this.
The Authority goes on to discuss the difficult task it has in defining the indecent. “The taste and decency provisions of the Codes present advertisers with special difficulties, because what is tasteless or indecent to some people may be perfectly acceptable to others. The report goes on to condemn the media: “While journalists voice their own opinions in the columns of their newspapers, public opinion is not always so firmly rooted in absolute terms. The essential balance that the Authority must achieve in judging such advertisements could not be impartial if the ASA was influenced solely by media pressure or lobbying.”
The second most complained about advert was the Tory’s Demon Eyes poster, which received 165 complaints. The ASA decided to uphold the complaints on the grounds that the campaign broke the Codes by portraying Tony Blair in an adverse and offensive manner.
Complaints about advertisements that appeared to use violent or aggressive imagery rose by 25% during last year. It is thought that the Dunblane Tragedy and the murder of Philip Lawrence, the headmaster, prompted much of the criticism.
Indeed, the Report stresses the relationship between complaints received and current social debate. Leah Bett’s ecstasy-related death heightened the public sensitivities to images of drug culture. 4 adverts had to be withdrawn during the year for using inappropriate drugs imagery. Jolly Rancher, with its slogan: “Fancy a smack in the mouth?”, was one such casualty.
Overall, in 1996, 8,409 adverts attracted a total of 12,055 complaints which became the subject of ASA scrutiny. Following investigation, 720 adverts were found to break the Codes and were withdrawn or amended. However, the number of complaints did fall by 6% year-on-year, although the number of adverts complained about rose from 541 in 1995 to 819 in 1996.
ASA: 0171 436 1698
