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

Jap Car South Ltd
- Upheld
- Website (own site)
- 23 September 2026
A website for a car import company was likely to cause serious offence on the grounds of race.
Animcha Ltd t/a tyan.ai
- Upheld
- Social media (paid ad)
- 16 September 2026
A paid-for Meta ad for an AI companion generator app was socially irresponsible and caused serious or widespread offence, including by featuring a harmful gender stereotype that objectified and sexualised women. The ad also portrayed someone who was or appeared to be under 18 years of age in a sexual way.
Guangxi Baise Tianyi Agricultural Development Co Ltd t/a Nexaipic - AI Portrait Generation Tool
- Upheld
- Social media (paid ad)
- 16 September 2026
Two paid-for Meta ads for an AI portrait generation tool were socially irresponsible and caused serious or widespread offence, including by featuring a harmful gender stereotype that objectified and sexualised women.
McCain Foods (GB) Ltd t/a McCain Foodservice Solutions
- Upheld
- Social media (paid ad)
- 16 September 2026
A paid-for Facebook ad for McCain Foods and Five Akhi’s restaurants broke the rules by featuring an identifiable less healthy food product.

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.

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