Not a single charity made the top-ten list for most complained-about ads last year, but two of the top ten most complained-about of all time were by charities.
Marie Stopes International’s 2010 TV ad promoting its pregnancy advice service received 1,088 complaints came in at sixth place in the all-time top ten, and Barnardo’s TV ad raising awareness of domestic child abuse, aired in 2010, rounded out the list, with 840 complaints. The Advertising Standards Authority dismissed the complaints against both charity adverts.
The details are contained in the ASA's annual report, which this year celebrates 50 years of the advertising regulator.
The most complained-about advertisement of all time, however, was a KFC ad from 2005 which featured call centre workers talking with their mouths full. Nearly 1,700 viewers complained it would encourage bad manners among children.
Last year's complaints
The total number of complaints made about advertising increased dramatically last year, but non-commercial advertising complaints dropped right down, according to the sector regulator.
Some 31,480 complaints about 22,397 advertisements were received last year, compared with 25,214 complaints about 13,074 ads in 2010.
Non-commercial complaints down
But while complaints across the board rose sharply, there was a steep fall in the number of complaints about non-commercial marketing. There were 1,281 complaints made about non-commercial advertising in 2011, a 68 per cent drop on 2010 figures.
Charities also were spared the top-ten shame, with not a single charity appearing in the list of the ten most complained-about adverts in 2011. A horror-themed Phones4U advert took top honours.
Complaints about online content
Television remains the most complained-about medium, but in its annual report, the ASA reveals that the number of complaints received about advertising on marketers’ own websites or social media was far higher than it expected. Last year was the first year the ASA enjoyed an expanded online remit which included authority over advertising on organisations' own online presence.
There were just under 7,200 complaints received which fit into the new online remit, accounting for nearly a third of all complaints received by the ASA. These complaints could account for the total rise in annual complaints recorded by the regulator. One such case was Greenpeace, which was ordered to remove a donation option requesting funds for direct action against a coal-processing plant.
