The Advertising Standards Authority has now received 769 complaints about the "Hooked" campaign, which leaves Miles Calraft Briginshaw Duffy's anti-smoking ad in eighth position in the most-complained-about ads list. The graphic print and TV ads show smokers with fish hooks through their jaws, being led back to cigarettes.
Just beating the DoH to number seven in the list is a 1991 print ad by Benetton showing a new-born baby fresh from birth. This ad pulled in 800 complaints. Living TV's lesbian drama 'The L Word' campaign came in at number nine with 650 complaints and Pot Noodle's "Horn" scraped in at 10 with 620.
Cadbury's Trident "Mastication for the nation" campaign has scored 519 complaints so far this year, as many as 1998's Levis "hamster" ad depicting a busy hamster, Kevin, on a wheel. Angry parents complained that children were reduced to tears by the ad, which shows Kevin playing on his wheel but dying of boredom when the wheel is taken away. The ad shows Kevin being poked with a pencil as he lay dead in his cage.
Cadbury Trident's ad, created by JWT, shows a West Indian dub poet on stage talking about the tragedies of chewing gum. A member of the audience hands him a new type of gum that creates such a taste sensation he takes to the streets of London to exclaim "mastication for the nation". Viewers complained about perceived racial stereotyping and the use of a black man in ads for a product named Trident, which also happens to be the name of the Metropolitan Police operation that tackles black gun crime in London.
A spokesman for the ASA said: "It is quite rare for two ads in quick succession to generate these many complaints but in all fairness we're sitting here in March and something might come along and blow all this out of the water."
KFC's TV ad showing call-centre workers singing with their mouths full is sitting on top of the list at 1,600. This ad, created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty in 2005, caused parents to ring the ASA and complain because they thought it would encourage bad table manners.
The KFC beat the previously most complained about list of ads, including Saatchi & Saatchi's ad for Mr Kipling's featuring a church hall nativity play, which attracted 806 complaints, and the Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO Wrigley's Xcite chewing gum spot, which showed a man regurgitating a dog and drew more than 600 complaints.