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Most complained about ads 2015: Holden’s ‘Bloody Caravaners’ beats out Ashley Madison

Holden’s ad in which a child complains about “bloody caravaners” attracted more complaints than the Ashley Madison “looking for someone other than my wife” commercial new figures from the Ad Standards Bureau reveal.

The other ads to make the ten most-complained about lists this year were Unicharm’s depiction of a woman on her period for Sofy BeFresh, a toilet paper ad where people say “oh sheet” and a Unilever ad which features two men kissing.

The Holden Colorado ad attracted 161 complaints to be the most complained about ad this year, whilst the controversial adultery site’s ad had 138 complaints. Last year an ad by Ashley Madison along the same theme took the crown for most-complained about ad of the year with 418 complaints.

While last year saw a record number of complaints this year they fell back in line with previous years, according to ASB CEO Fiona Jolly. Overall the ASB received 4,000 complaints against 450 different ads, down from 5,600 last year.

“What we can see from the list is that complainants are particularly concerned with seeing behaviour in advertisements that they view as inappropriate,” she added.

Of the top ten list the Ashley Madison ad was the only one to fall foul of the ad watchdog’s codes of practice and be banned.

Most complained about ads of 2015:

0098/15 Holden Ltd
TV ad features a man driving and complaining about “Bloody caravaners”.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 161

0036/15 Ashley Madison – Avid Life
TV ad features men singing about “looking for someone other than my wife”.
Upheld, number of complaints: 138

0253/15 Fantastic Snacks Australia
TV ad shows a wife licking chip flavouring off her husband’s lips.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 85

(Courtesy of Savvy Media Monitoing)

0340/15 Unicharm Australasia
TV ad features a woman in a variety of stereotypical scenarios related to having her period.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 76

Ad could not be found

0118/15 Sportsbet
TV ad which features a sweaty man wiping himself at the gym.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 71

0208/15 Stan
TV ad refers to a cat as a ‘big pussy’.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 66

0026/15 Unilever Australia
TV ad for a hair product which features two men kissing.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 62

0326/15 Hyundai Motor Company Australia Pty Ltd
TV ad features a woman flicking her belt at a snake.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 59

0291/15 SCA Hygiene Australasia
TV ad featuring people saying “oh sheet”.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 56

0401/15 Edgewell
TV ad features three women trimming bonsai plants in front of their crotches.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 53

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