Religion Tops Charts In Drawing Ad Complaints
Religion topped the charts last year as the most antagonising theme in advertising, according to the Advertising Standards Authority, which received most complaints for those campaigns featuring religious imagery over the course of the year.
The advertising watchdog’s annual report for 2004 reveals that both broadcast and non-broadcast commercials caused religious offence, with the two most complained about non-broadcast advertisements being a Channel 4 poster for Shameless, depicting a drunken family scene styled on the Last Supper, and a poster for the morning-after pill by Schering Health Care which featured the strapline, “Immaculate Conception”. The advertisements attracted 264 and 183 complaints respectively.
However, while the advertisement for the morning-after pill was censured by the ASA, Channel 4’s poster campaign escaped the watchdog’s wrath, as it was seen to be parodying Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, rather than the event itself.
Top of the broadcast advertising complaints list was the teleshopping channel Auctionworld, which attracted 1,360 complaints principally about delays in the delivery of ordered goods, misleading guide prices and poor customer service.
The complaints led to Ofcom not only upholding consumer concerns, but issuing a record fine of £450,000. The channel’s licence was subsequently revoked and Auctionworld has not broadcast since November.
Second on the most-complained about list for broadcast advertising was a commercial for Mr Kipling cakes, drawing 806 complaints about a nativity play which featured a real-life birth. The 30 second spot attracted complaints that it was mocking elements central to the Christian faith. Of these three, complaints about both the Mr Kipling commercial and the Levonelle poster were upheld.
The advertising code states that advertisements should not cause “serious or widespread offence”. 2004 saw Auctionworld achieving dubious honour as the only advertisement listed in the broadcast list of most complained ads which was not challenged underneath the offensiveness code. Eight of the ads appearing in the non-broadcast top 10 generated complaints that their content was offensive.
Amongst those in the broadcast advertisements’ top ten for complaints was the British Heart Foundation’s anti smoking campaign, showing an artery with fatty deposits and cigarettes dripping lard onto their owners as they smoked. The campaign drew a total of 92 complaints, as well as critical acclaim, and saw Ofcom, then responsible for broadcast advertising regulation, ruling in favour of the commercial as its aims and reasoning were important in educating the public. Overall Ofcom believed that the importance of the message outweighed the objections and ruled that the complaints should not be upheld (see Ofcom Clears Hard Hitting Anti-Smoking Campaign).
All of the advertisements, both broadcast and non-broadcast, can be viewed on the ASA’s Annual Report microsite, available at http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/annual_report.
ASA: 020 7580 5555 www.asa.org.uk