Sex and violence ‘chief concerns’

Race, sex and violence are all contentious topics within advertising, it has been revealed.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has published its 2007 Annual Report, noting the themes which arise in the most complaints against advertisers.

More complaints were levelled against the Department of Health than any other individual campaign over the course of the year.

The department’s advertisements used images of people with fish hooks through their cheeks to represent addiction, with complaints against two of the television commercials upheld by the ASA.

Second and third in terms of complaints against specific campaigns were objections relating to race and gender in advertisements for Trident chewing gum and Kepak UK respectively.

The ASA notes that television received “by far” the most complaints, while the internet ranked second.

However, many web-based complaints related to the content of sites, which is outside of the authority’s remit.

Notwithstanding this fact, over the year as a whole the number of objections rose by 7.9 per cent on 2006 to an all-time high of 14,080.