The most complained-about adverts in UK history

The most complained about advert in UK history is Paddy Power’s “It’s Oscar time” from March 2014, which offered money back on Oscar Pistorius trial bets “if he walks” and drew 5,525 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority. The ASA banned it. Second is Tesco’s 2021 Christmas film, in which Father Christmas flashes a Covid pass at border control, with 5,009 complaints and no breach found. Those two facts tell you most of what you need to know about the most complained about adverts in Britain: a big complaint count is a measure of how organised the audience was, not of whether a rule was broken.

This ranking uses the ASA’s own published figures: its annual top tens, the all-time list it released for its fiftieth anniversary in 2012, and the individual rulings. Of the twenty adverts below, only six were upheld in full and two in part. The regulator has said plainly that the ads attracting the most complaints are rarely the ones that need banning, and the numbers bear that out. Where the ASA’s year-end tally differs slightly from the figure quoted at the time of a ruling, we use the ASA’s list.

One housekeeping note. The ASA published a yearly countdown of its most complained about adverts until the early 2020s; its more recent annual reports give totals by medium rather than by advert, so nothing after 2021 appears here. If the regulator resumes the list, this page will be updated.

20 to 11: the most complained about adverts that were mostly cleared

20. Sainsbury’s: 1914 (2014)

AMV BBDO’s recreation of the Christmas truce, made with the Royal British Legion, drew 823 complaints from people who felt a war should not be used to sell groceries. The ASA assessed it and found no grounds for a formal investigation, noting the charity partnership and the care taken with the history. We reviewed the film and reached a similar view: great craft on contested ground. Crown verdict: the only Christmas advert on this list that was complained about for being too serious.

19. Barnardo’s: Break the Cycle (2008)

BBH’s film showed a girl repeatedly hit around the head by her father, a loop the charity wanted viewers to find unbearable. It was the most complained about advert of 2008 with 840 complaints, in a year when the ASA received a then record 26,433. The regulator ruled the campaign’s purpose justified the imagery and let it stand, with scheduling restrictions. Crown verdict: proof that the ASA will accept distress when the cause is the point of the ad rather than a decoration on it.

18. MoneySuperMarket: Epic Squads (2016)

Dave, in his denim shorts and heels, led a dance-off against Colin’s hi-vis builders and 895 people complained, many arguing the ad was homophobic or too sexual for children. The ASA disagreed, judged the routine comic rather than sexual, and did not investigate. It was one of three MoneySuperMarket ads in 2016’s top five, which together drew just under 2,500 complaints and not a single ruling against the brand. Crown verdict: the moment the most complained about brand in Britain realised complaints were free media.

17. Department of Energy and Climate Change: Act on CO2 (2009)

A father reads his daughter a bedtime story about a land where carbon dioxide drowned the puppies, and 939 people complained that the government was frightening children and overstating the science. The ASA upheld in part in March 2010: two press ads that presented contested predictions as settled fact were banned, while the television film was referred to Ofcom. Crown verdict: the only government campaign in the twenty, and the one where the complaint that stuck was about the science rather than the puppies.

16. Yves Saint Laurent: Opium (2000)

Sophie Dahl, naked but for a pair of heels, reclined across a poster for YSL’s Opium and 948 people objected. The ASA upheld the complaints against the poster while accepting the same image in magazines, calling the case “a textbook example of the importance of targeting” in matters of offence, since the magazine reader had chosen to look and the person at the bus stop had not. The distinction still governs how the regulator treats outdoor advertising. Crown verdict: the ruling that established a poster is judged by who cannot avoid it.

15. GoCompare: Stuart Pearce (2012)

Stuart Pearce boots a football into Gio Compario’s stomach, one of a series in which the public’s least favourite tenor was silenced by celebrities, and 1,008 complaints made it the most complained about advert of 2012. A second execution, in which Sue Barker fires a rocket launcher at him, took 797, and the ASA treated both as pantomime and did not uphold. Our review explains why the brand invited the nation to attack its own mascot. Crown verdict: the only entry here complained about for violence against a character everyone claimed to hate.

14. MoneySuperMarket: Gary the bodyguard (2016)

The most complained about advert of 2016 was Gary, a suited bodyguard who breaks into a hip-thrusting dance at a rally, with 1,063 complaints that his moves were overtly sexual and unsuitable for children. The ASA judged the routine comic rather than explicit and did not uphold. It was the brand’s second consecutive year at number one, and the regulator’s own review of 2016 noted that none of the year’s top ten had needed banning. Crown verdict: the sequel that out-complained the original and, like the original, changed nothing about the rules.

13. Volkswagen: Sometimes the only one you have to beat is yourself (2008)

DDB London’s launch film for the sixth Golf had the car’s chief engineer fighting martial-arts replicas of himself with car parts as weapons, and 1,070 complaints followed. The ASA agreed the stylised fights were far from reality but upheld in part, moving the full-length version behind the 9pm watershed because of the weapons. The cinema version was left alone, since any child watching would be with an adult. Crown verdict: the most complained about car advert ever, and a rare case where the fix was a scheduling change rather than a ban.

12. Marie Stopes International: Are You Late? (2010)

The first television advert for a pregnancy advice service that included abortion ran in May 2010 and drew 1,088 complaints, most claiming it promoted termination. The ASA found the ad offered information rather than advocating any course of action and did not uphold. It remains the only advert on this list where the objection was to the existence of the category rather than the execution. Crown verdict: a landmark that was complained about for being first, then cleared for being careful.

11. British Safety Council: The Eleventh Commandment (1995)

A leaflet showing the Pope in a hard hat under the line “Thou shalt always wear a condom” gathered 1,192 complaints and was banned, the ASA finding it offensive to Catholics. It was the record holder for a decade until KFC overtook it, and it sits in the regulator’s own all-time top ten. It was a leaflet rather than a broadcast, which makes the total more remarkable: nobody saw it who did not pick it up. Crown verdict: the oldest entry here and the clearest, because it set out to offend one group to make a point to another.

10 to 4: the thousand-complaint club

10. The Christian Party: There definitely is a God (2009)

The reply to the British Humanist Association’s “There’s probably no God” bus campaign drew 1,204 complaints, more than three times the atheist original’s 392, making it the most complained about advert of 2009 and the most complained about non-broadcast ad on record. The ASA could not investigate either: both were political or religious expressions of opinion, outside its remit. Crown verdict: two bus sides, 1,596 complaints, no ruling, and the best evidence that complaint counts measure a culture war rather than a code breach.

9. Paddy Power: Blind footballers (2010)

A blindfolded England player, hunting a ball with a bell in it, kicks a cat across the pitch instead. The ASA logged 1,313 complaints, the great majority claiming the ad condoned cruelty to animals and 220 objecting on behalf of blind people. The regulator found the tone too surreal to encourage anyone to hurt a cat and did not uphold. Crown verdict: Paddy Power’s first national outrage, and the one that taught the bookmaker that a cleared ad and a banned ad generate the same headlines.

8. Auction World (2004)

Not a single commercial but a shopping channel whose broadcasts were themselves advertising, and whose 1,360 complaints about misleading guide prices and undelivered goods made it the most complained about broadcast advertiser of 2004. The ASA referred the case to Ofcom, which fined the channel and then revoked its licence; the company folded in 2005. Crown verdict: the only entry that ended with a broadcaster taken off air, which is what a complaint count is supposed to achieve and almost never does.

7. MoneySuperMarket: Epic Strut (2015)

Dave struts down a street in high heels and hot pants to Pussycat Dolls and 1,513 people told the ASA it was offensive, overtly sexual and inappropriate for children. The regulator found it comic and unlikely to cause serious offence, and it topped the 2015 list without an investigation. Our review covers how the complaints became part of the marketing. Crown verdict: the most complained about advert of its year and one of the most effective, which is not the paradox it sounds.

6. KFC: Zinger Crunch Salad (2005)

Three call-centre workers sing about a salad with their mouths full, and 1,671 complaints made it the most complained about advert in British history for nine years. The objections were that it encouraged bad table manners, mocked speech impediments, risked children choking and brought emergency helplines into disrepute. The ASA rejected all of them, judging the ad unlikely to change children’s behaviour or undermine parents. Crown verdict: a nation that shrugged at abortion, violence and the Pope drew the line at chewing on camera.

5. The Sun: Page 3 date (2014)

An email sent to the paper’s subscribers promoted a prize draw to win a date with a Page 3 model, and 1,711 people complained that it was sexist and demeaning. The ASA upheld, one of only two upheld rulings in 2014’s top five. It is the highest-placed piece of direct marketing on this list and the least remembered, because nobody saw it except the people it was sent to. Crown verdict: the entry that shows complaint totals no longer need a television audience, only a mailing list and a campaign group.

4. Booking.com: Booking.yeah (2014)

The TV and cinema film that used “booking” where a swear word would go drew 1,768 complaints that it encouraged bad language among children. The ASA did not uphold, judging it a light-hearted play on words that could not be mistaken for the real thing. The brand then filled three places in 2015’s top ten with follow-ups, another 1,291 complaints, and was cleared each time. Crown verdict: a pun that was complained about more than most banned adverts, and never once broke a rule.

The top three most complained about adverts of all time

3. Ryanair: Jab and Go (2020)

Launched on 26 December 2020, the ad told viewers to book summer holidays because “vaccines are coming” and drew 2,370 complaints that it was misleading about the rollout and encouraged people to behave irresponsibly once vaccinated. The ASA banned it in February 2021, and its annual report recorded it as the most complained about advert of 2020 and the third of all time. Crown verdict: the highest total ever for an ad the regulator actually agreed with the public about.

2. Tesco: This Is Christmas, Nothing’s Stopping Us (2021)

BBH London’s film about a country determined to have Christmas included Father Christmas showing a Covid pass at passport control. More than 3,000 complaints arrived in three days, largely from an organised online campaign arguing the ad was coercive and discriminated by vaccine status, and the total settled at 5,009. The ASA read the scene as a joke about travel rules, found no breach and did not investigate. Crown verdict: the second most complained about advert ever, and a routine supermarket Christmas ad on every other measure.

1. Paddy Power: It’s Oscar time (2014)

A press and online ad ran as Oscar Pistorius’s murder trial opened, mocking the athlete up as an Academy Award statuette and offering money back “if he walks”. Complaints were coordinated through a change.org petition and reached 5,525, the most the ASA has ever received about a single advert. The regulator suspended the ad immediately and then upheld, finding it trivialised a murder trial, the death of a woman and disability, and brought advertising into disrepute. Crown verdict: the record, and the one time the biggest number and the worst advert were the same thing.

The famous ones that fall short of the twenty

Several adverts remembered as scandals had smaller totals than their reputations suggest. Protein World’s “Are you beach body ready?” poster drew 380 complaints in 2015 and was cleared on offence, though the ASA had already stopped it running in the same form while it examined the weight-loss claims. Match.com’s two women kissing drew 810 in 2016 and was cleared. KFC’s rapping chicken topped 2017 with 755, GoCompare’s rocket launcher took 797 in 2012, and Volkswagen’s cowardly singing dog took 743 in 2008, all without a ruling against them.

Paddy Power’s 2012 Cheltenham ad, which invited viewers to spot “the stallions from the mares” among transgender racegoers, is the odd one out: the online version drew 311 complaints and fell outside the ASA’s remit, while the TV version was upheld on 92. Every entry above is verified against an ASA figure, and its rulings on adverts that were actually banned, as opposed to merely complained about, are collected in our guide to banned adverts and updated in the monthly rulings round-up.

How we ranked these

This list is ordered by one number: the complaints the ASA recorded against a single advert, as published in its annual top tens, its 2012 all-time list and its rulings. There is no weighting for idea, craft, bravery, effectiveness or legs, because a complaint count is not a quality measure and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. Where a brand’s campaign spread across several executions, each execution is counted separately, which is why MoneySuperMarket appears three times. The outcome of each case is stated so readers can see how rarely the biggest totals produced a ban.

Frequently asked

What is the most complained about advert ever in the UK?

Paddy Power’s 2014 Oscar Pistorius ad, with 5,525 complaints to the ASA. It was banned for trivialising a murder trial and disability.

Does the ASA ban an advert if it gets enough complaints?

No. One complaint can trigger an investigation and five thousand can be dismissed; the regulator judges the ad against the code, not the size of the postbag. Fourteen of the twenty adverts here were cleared or never investigated.

Which brand has been complained about most?

Across separate adverts, MoneySuperMarket: three executions in 2015 and 2016 drew more than 3,400 complaints between them, none upheld. For a single advert the record belongs to Paddy Power, which also appears twice in the top ten.

Where do the complaint numbers come from?

From the ASA’s own published lists and rulings. Figures reported by newspapers on the day of a ruling sometimes differ by a handful from the year-end total, and this page uses the ASA’s final number.