The campaign kicked off with just the message, "Nothing good ever came out of America", displayed on 120 billboards for a week. The ad attracted 99 complaints.
The complainants, some of whom were US citizens, thought the ad was offensive and racist towards Americans. Almost half said that because it did not state what it was advertising it was irresponsible and distressing and could incite violence in areas where racial tension already existed.
The Advertising Standards Authority rejected the first complaint on the basis that the ad did not refer to a specific ethnic group and the phrase was not an obvious racial insult in itself.
It rejected the second complaint because it believed the ad's positioning in clearly recognisable outdoor advertising sites identified it clearly as a commercial message, despite the absence of the advertiser's identity. It believed the message was relatively mild and did not directly incite violence.
It also made allowances for the fact that the following week the same sites and 350 others featured a follow-up ad featuring the copy, "Who says nothing good ever came out of America? The new channel from Five showcasing the best of the US", which was printed over images of American film icons.
In a separate case, the ASA rejected a complaint from BSkyB about a Film4 press ad claiming to be "the most complete film channel in the world". The ASA disagreed with Sky's objection that this was misleading because it believed the rest of the ad made it clear the claim referred to Film4's activities in film making.
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