The advertisement, created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, read "I've got heart failure. And this is what it feels like every morning", and went on to explain how the British Heart Foundation does to help suffers. The ad was banned by the advertising watchdog in June 2002.
It was a record-breaking year for the ASA, which dealt with 13,959 complaints -- a rise of 10.1% on 2001. Some of the nation's biggest advertisers, including McDonald's and Unilever, also featured in the top 10 most complained-about ads last year.
Unilever's Pot Noodle ads, with the strapline "the slag of all snacks" were banned after 288 complaints from the public. McDonald's found that 154 keen mathematicians pointed out that an ad for its 99p menu featured an incorrectly calculated headline -- although this complaint was not upheld.
The majority of complaints received by the ASA were relating to posters. They included the poster for the Ali G film 'Ali G in da House', which featured the Ali G character with his hand resting on the naked bottom of a woman.
The most common reason that people complained was because they found ads offensive. Like the Ali G, poster the most complained about ads featured nudity, including one for the BBC's 'Babyfather' showing four naked men in a shower and another for radio station Fusion 105.3, which showed a naked woman whose breasts had become radio dials.
The ASA said that the self-regulatory system proved effective, even with the industry facing hard times.
ASA's director-general Christopher Graham said: "When an industry is in recession there must be a strong temptation to let the rules go by the board in order to achieve short-term gains. Instead, our compliance research featured in the report shows that advertisers overwhelmingly abide by the rules. This report shows that self regulation works -- in tough times as well as good ones."
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