A hard-hitting multimedia campaign from the Department of Health (DoH) was awarded the dubious accolade of carrying the most offensive ad of 2007, according to the Advertising Standards Authority, in a year which saw a record number of complaints.

In the ASA’s annual report published today, the DoH’s Hook campaign (pictured), created by Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy, was shown to top the complaints table with 774 complaints.

The campaign included TV, national press, poster and internet ads, and ran between January and February to target those attempting to quit smoking in the ’New Year’.

Designed to confront smokers about the controlling nature of their addiction, the graphic images proved too much for the UK and were banned by the ASA in May.

Complainants found the violent imagery offensive, with the poster ads in particular generating the most complaints on the ground that they could frighten and distress children.

One TV ad showed a woman folding clothes while in a flat with her child. Suddenly, a hook appears in her mouth and she is dragged by a wire attached to the hook to another room as a voiceover states: “The average smoker needs over 5,000 cigarettes a year.”

The internet version allowed users to pull upon the wire to receive advice and links to DoH’s support services.

A spokesperson for the DoH said: "We appreciate that this campaign included thought provoking and dramatic images and did not intend to cause distress; we apologise for any distress that may have been caused.

“Although a number of complaints were received, whilst the Hook campaign was live over 450,000 smokers contacted the NHS for more information about stopping smoking."

Two other campaigns that featured violent imagery in the top 10 most complained ads were an MFI TV ad showing a woman slapping her husband and a TV ad for Quorn showing a teenager threatening her brother with a fork.

Another ad to rile the public was Cadbury’s TV spot for its Trident chewing gum, which 519 complainants believed “stereotyped and ridiculed” black people. A TV ad by Kepak showing a woman in her underwear rotating on a sofa also attracted 219 complaints for being sexist and demeaning to women.

Lord Smith, chairman of the ASA, said that his first year in the post had been the ASA’s busiest yet. A record number of ads were changed or withdrawn (2,458) and the number of ads complained about rose 9.6 per cent to an all-time high of 14,080.

Advertisers and agencies wishing to avoid the wrath of the ASA in 2008 would do well to steer clear of violent imagery, sex and race, based on last year's upheld complaints.

The advertising body also dealt with a sharp increase in the number of complaints about false or unsubstantiated environmental claims, 556 from 408 ads, something the watchdog specifically warned advertisers against in the second quarter.

Lord Smith also noted that the rising number of complaints about internet content posed a challenge to the self-regulatory system.

“These complaints are almost entirely about truth, accuracy, misleadingness and availability – the “meat and drink” of the ASA’s daily work,” he said. 

“We hope for an early outcome to the detailed discussions under way within the industry on the development of ways to ensure continued responsibility in advertising in new media settings.”

In 2006 the most complained about ad, with 553 complaints, was for a national press campaign by the Gay Police Association. It included a Bible in an attempt to highlight that religious motivations were behind many homophobic incidents.