However, whilst action by the ASA was on the up, the 2004 report saw non-broadcast complaints fall by 10.9% to 12,711 and the number of advertisement complaints drop by 6.2% to 10,062.
Around 820 non-broadcast ads were subject to a formal investigation and 77% of those received an upheld adjudication.
The number of informally resolved cases - when the advertiser agrees to withdraw or amend advertisements without a formal investigation - rose to 860, overtaking those that were formally solved for the first time.
The report also now includes broadcast advertising after it took over responsibility from Ofcom on 1 November 2004.
The ASA received 1,797 complaints about TV and radio advertising from 1 November until the end of the year.
At the top of the most complained-about Broadcast ad of 2004 was Auctionworld, with a staggering 1,360 complaints against misleading guide prices and delays in delivering goods.
Action by Ofcom, the then communications regulator, eventually resulted in a £450,000 fine for the shopping channel and subsequent revocation of its licence to broadcast.
Second place went to Mr Kiplings Mince Pies, which had 806 complaints surrounding the ad that saw a woman giving birth in a church hall, while third place went to Virgin Mobile with 459 complaints to what appeared to show a bathroom attendant helping a man go to the toilet.
Even the fifth most complained about TV advert, Trojan Condoms, gained 317 complaints, around 50 more than the most complained about non-broadcast ad.
Top of the most complained about non-broadcast ads was Channel Four press and poster ads for the TV series Shameless which featured Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting, The Last Supper, with 264 complaints.
Schering Health Care followed this as the 2nd most complained about non-broadcast ad with 182 complaints against the headline ‘Immaculate Contraception’ on the morning after pill poster.
The third most complained about non-broadcast ad with 162 complaints was for a Channel Four insert that promoted a programme on the Royal Mail.
It was claimed that it made workers look like thieves, however the ASA ruled that it was justified in light of the programmes content.
Religion was a dominant theme with three of the top four campaigns across both media provoking complaints on the grounds of religious offence.
And leisure advertising continues to be the most complained about business sector with 3,343 non-broadcast complaints.
The leisure sector followed by computers and telecoms, health and beauty, and holidays and travel accounted for 53% of complaints.
National press received the most complaints out of all media with 2,270, featuring in six out of ten of the most complained about non-broadcast campaigns.
A significant change is that the number of internet advertising complaints have increased, becoming the fourth most complained about media, ahead of magazine advertising.
By Helen Kaye
ASA unveils record number of ad interventions
A record 1,835 non-broadcast advertisements were changed or withdrawn as a result of Advertising Standards Authority action, according to the newly published ASA’s 2004 Annual Report.
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