Offensive

Although they only account for a small part of the ASA’s work, complaints about taste and decency are often the most high profile.

Upheld decisions can result in widespread adverse publicity for the company concerned and marketers can be required to have posters pre-vetted by CAP’s Copy Advice team for two years if they publish an offensive poster.

The rules state ads must not contain anything that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence, and specifies that special care must be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age.

When making a decision on whether an ad is likely to cause widespread offence, we take into account: the audience who are likely to see the ad; the context in which the ad appears; the product it’s promoting; and prevailing standards in society. To help judge those standards, from time-to-time, we commission major consumer research to find out what concerns people and where they think the line should be drawn.

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Latest rulings

Tesco Mobile Ltd t/a Tesco Mobile
- Upheld in part
- National newspaper (paid ad), Poster, Social media (paid ad)
- 11 May 2022
We banned ads for replacing expletives with food terms.
Lamb & Co. Property Ltd
- Upheld
- Poster
- 27 April 2022
An outdoor poster for an estate agents was banned for being likely to cause offence.
LeMieux Ltd
- Upheld
- Internet (website content)
- 27 April 2022
A website ad for a food supplement for female horses, which included an offensive gender stereotype, was banned for being likely to cause serious offence.
Surfshark Ltd
- Upheld
- Internet (video)
- 20 April 2022
A YouTube video ad by Surfshark was banned for being likely to cause fear or distress without justifiable reason.

View all rulings

Offensive

Although they only account for a small part of the ASA’s work, complaints about taste and decency are often the most high profile.

Latest news

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Latest rulings

Tesco Mobile Ltd t/a Tesco Mobile

Lamb & Co. Property Ltd

LeMieux Ltd

Surfshark Ltd

Help getting it right

Popular advice

Harm and Offence: Gender stereotypes

Offence: Sexualisation and objectification

Offence: Race

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