Mince pies ad tops complaint list

Adverts using religious imagery to promote mince pies, contraception and a TV series provoked the most complaints in 2004, the industry's watchdog revealed today.

More than 800 people objected to an advert for Mr Kipling's Mince Pies which showed a woman called Mary giving birth in what seemed to be a modern hospital but was in fact a church.

It transpired that the shocked audience were supposed to be watching a Nativity play and Christians claimed the scene mocked the birth of Jesus.

Regulator Ofcom, which ruled on broadcast adverts until it handed over the task to the Advertising Standards Authority on November 1 last year, upheld the objection.

It ruled that the advert breached their code, was offensive and the advert was subsequently taken off air.

When Channel 4 used posters and press to advertise the return of the TV series Shameless, the characters were seen echoing the scene of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper.

The ASA received 264 complaints from people arguing that it mocked Christianity, but the watchdog rejected the claims because the posters poked fun at the painting rather than religion.

Religion was also the target in a poster campaign advertising the morning-after pill which asked "Immaculate Contraception?".

A total of 182 complaints were made from people who felt religion was being ridiculed.

The ASA ruled that the pun on the Roman Catholic belief of Immaculate Conception could cause widespread offence and upheld complaints against it.

In its annual report, published today, the ASA said it had seen a record number - 1,835 - of non-broadcasting adverts dropped or changed after the watchdog's intervention.

These included an Armani Junior advert which the ASA ruled sexualised a child whose gender was ambiguous and a Ryanair promotion which promoted "Fawking Great Offers" close to Guy Fawkes Night.