The most complained about adverts of 2017
In 2017, 30,000 complaints were made to the UK’s advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), for a variety of adverts that didn’t quite impress everyone. Among some of the worst offenders, were KFC’s ‘The Whole Chicken’ ad, Moneysupermarket.com ‘builders and strutters’ and the infamous new product V.I.Poo spray.
KFC’s dancing chicken ad was in fact rated the most unpopular ad of the year, with 755 complaints made to the ASA. The concerns were that it was disrespectful to chickens and distressful to vegans and vegetarians, although the ASA ruled it was unlikely to cause serious offence.
Some other ads that made the list include:
- Moneysupermarket.com ‘strutters and builders’ (455 complaints)
- Dove’s breastfeeding ads (391 complaints)
- McDonalds insensitive ad featuring a mother and son talking about his deceased father over a filet-o-fish (256 complaints)
- Match.com same sex couple kissing (293 complaints)
- V.I.Poo spray (207 complaints)
- Malteasers romantic encounter (92 complaints)
- Currys PC World for promoting materialism over Christianity (131)
- Macmillan Cancer Support for ‘overly graphic scenes’ (116)
For those that watch the adverts, rather than taking a toilet or snack break, it can soon become apparent that some ads are less tolerable than others – especially those that appear every other ad break! So, did your most disliked advert make the list?