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

Glow Up LLC t/a Maxxing
- Upheld
- Social media (paid ad)
- 02 September 2026
Two paid-for Meta ads for an AI powered app to maximise physical attractiveness misleadingly exaggerated the effectiveness of the product, were irresponsible and included gender stereotypes that were likely to cause harm.
SheMed Ltd
- Upheld
- Social media (paid ad)
- 02 September 2026
A paid-for Reddit ad for a female-focused medical weight-loss service promoted weight-loss prescription-only medicines to the public, against the law and our rules, was likely to exploit consumers’ insecurities relating to body image and weight and was irresponsible.
BioIdentical Hormone Therapy Ltd t/a BioID Health
- Upheld
- Social media (paid ad)
- 26 August 2026
Two paid-for Facebook ads for a hormone health consultant made misleading claims that they could provide more effective tests and services for low testosterone than GPs and were irresponsible by implying that GPs were insufficiently thorough.
Stacey’s World Rocks
- Upheld
- Messaging app
- 26 August 2026
A Telegram post on the Stacey’s World Rocks account was socially irresponsible by encouraging people not to pay household bills.

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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