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

Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd
- Not Upheld
- E-mail
- 31 July 2019
An email from Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd, received on 24 April 2019, entitled "Gypsies next door, new series features Can't Pay? We'll Take it Away! Agents". Text within the email stated "Find out why DCBL maintain a 100% Traveller Removal success rate, watch the episode on-demand now. Tra...
Volkswagen Group UK Ltd
- Upheld
- 14 August 2019
A TV ad for the Volkswagen eGolf, seen on 14 June 2019, opened with a shot of a woman and a man in a tent. The woman was asleep and the man switched off the light and closed the tent, which was shown to be fixed to a sheer cliff face. The following scene depicted two male astronauts floating in a space ship. Text state...
Strasse (UK) Ltd
- Upheld
- Magazine
- 29 May 2019
An ad for Strasse Garage, seen in the 911 and Porsche World Magazine on 28 February 2019 featured an image of the lower half of a woman’s body wearing a black fitted mini-dress and brightly coloured high heels positioned underneath a car, surrounded by car tools and a handbag. Text positioned across the image stated “A...

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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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Latest rulings

Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd

Volkswagen Group UK Ltd

Strasse (UK) Ltd

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