The commercial, created by The Leith Agency, was based around a bar scene where an attractive woman sidles over to a man at a bar. She then reaches up to her face, pretends to remove a false eye and drops this into his glass.
The man, looking on quite shocked, watches as the woman proceeds to gulp down part of his pint, apparently including the eye. Slapping herself on the back of the head, the eye appears to have popped back into its rightful place. The ad is accompanied by the tune I Only Have Eyes for You and ends with the strapline "Blinding".
Viewers complained that the intended joke in the ad was in unacceptable bad taste. They objected to what they saw as a mocking portrayal of those that had lost an eye and now had to cope with this disability.
Of the complainants, 37 stated that they had been distressed by the commercial due to the fact that they, a member of their family or a friend had lost an eye, in many cases due to cancer. A number said that they found the commercial particularly insensitive as their child had lost an eye to cancer.
One such parent reported that her child had become upset after seeing the advertisement. The ITC also received a complaint from the Retinoblastoma Society, representing child patients affected by cancer of the eye.
The agency defended the ad arguing that the intention had simply been to make "an engaging piece of advertising that people would enjoy".
The ITC agreed with the agency and did not upheld the complaints. It said it understood how viewers that had been affected by the loss of an eye could have found the ad unsettling. However, while it regretted the distress caused, it judged that the ad did not contain a damaging or undermining portrayal of disability and was not unsuitable for general viewing.
Leith was appointed to handle the £10m Carling account in August 2000 with a brief to broaden the lager's appeal beyond its core of male drinkers.
Leith won the business after a final shoot-out against McCann-Erickson's sister agency, Magic Hat.
The original list had included J. Walter Thompson, Mustoe Merriman Herring Levy and Publicis, which also handles the Worthington Creamflow business.
Carling is the best-selling lager brand in the UK, with a 24% share of draught sales, Carling has seen a 20% rise in sales to £150m last year.