Nine Of The Best Ever Banned UK Commercials
Nine Of The Best Ever Banned UK Commercials
The snitty Brits often get their knickers in knots over next-to-nothing.
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) are an unpredictable lot. Sometimes, an ad will receive thousands of consumer complaints, but they don’t ban it. Other times, an ad will receive literally one (1) complaint, and they do ban it. By law, they must review every ad that gets whinged about.
I guess some of these ads “deserved” to be banned, but certainly not for being boring.
1—Wrigley’s Xcite Gumballs (2003)
At the time, “Dog Breath” received over 700 complaints. Ad agency: AMV BBDO. Here’s a quick BTS video on how they shot it.
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2—VW (2008)
Here, a VW Golf engineer fights many versions of himself. The spot got over 1,000 complaints because of the violence. Ending payoff line:
“Sometimes, the only one you have to beat is yourself”.
Ad agency: DDB, London.
3—For Goodness Shakes (2013)
The protein shake that “shakes for you”. Here, we see several men seemingly masturbating, including one who looks like he unloads on a woman’s upperback/hair. This is one of those ads that got exactly one complaint. Nevertheless, it was banned for “causing widespread offence”. Here was part of ASA’s ruling:
“We noted that the final scene, which featured a man standing behind a woman in a lift, would be understood by adult viewers as indicating that the man had ejaculated onto the woman’s back.”
4—DHS (2007)
Pretty effective Anti-smoking spot via the Department Of Health. The ASA received over 700 grumbles. Ad agency: Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy (no relation).
5—Pot Noodle (2005)
He’s “Hornie”, for Pot Noodle. So hornie, he smacks his trouser trumpet (below) into a woman’s face, a la Brett Kavanaugh. The ASA received over 600 complaints about the ad, but here declined to act. Ad agency: HHCL Red Cell, London, who also created the banned Tango spot, below.
6—Tango (1992)
Tango’s Orange Man was maybe the best brand mascot ever. The man (played by Peter Geeves) perfectly branded the experience of drinking tangy Tango Orange soda with a two-handed face-SLAP.
The commercial launched the very successful 1990s “You Know When You’ve Been Tango’d” campaign. However, it was soon pulled because playground kids predictably began copying the Orange Man’s SLAP on each other (Wikipedia).
7—Mortal Kombat (2005)
WARNING: Very Violent. This video only aired online and received only one complaint. Still, the ASA banned it.
The advert was irresponsible…it glorified violence and some scenes could be emulated…showing a man's heart being ripped out and another being decapitated caused distress and serious offence.
8—IRN-BRU (1999)
Everybody! Especially me! “Even though I used to be a man!” Scotland’s version of the ASA, Ofcom, was fine with the ad…until that last shaving shot (below). They reported that 17 viewers, some of whom were transsexuals, complained about the commercial.
IRN-BRU of course owns this obnoxious creative approach.
9—XBOX (2002)
Lastly, IMHO, the best banned UK ad ever. It “launched" Xbox in Europe. Boy did it ever. The gist:
Woman blasts baby out of her baby hole, baby flies at the speed of life through the sky, aging quickly into an old man, old man crashes into his death hole in the ground. (and, scene).
Ad agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty.
