It has been reported that in the media and broadcasting industry, 75 percent of complaints regarding advertisements were due to the content being offensive to Christian morals. Overall, the number of complaints recorded to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) fell over the past year by 11 percent. However, by far the largest proportion of complaints came against adverts that were said to mock or offend Christian principles and beliefs.

A Channel 4 advert received the most complaints for any non-broadcast advert. The poster advertised a Channel 4 series in which the family involved in the show posed like Jesus and his disciples in Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper.

The ASA received 264 complaints regarding that advert, however, the ASA refused to uphold the complaints as it was decided that the piece parodied the renaissance artistic work rather than the Christian sacrament.

The second most-complained about non-broadcast advert was a Health Care advert for the morning after pill, which held as its title “Immaculate Contraception”. In total 182 complaints were received, many by Roman Catholics, and this time the complaints were upheld.

The ASA published their reports today, and the overall figures revealed that the number of complaints towards non-broadcast adverts actually declined in 2004 to 12,711 – a fall of 10.9% compared with 2003. In addition, this year for the first time the ASA investigated complaints regarding broadcast adverts – a task previously fulfilled by Ofcom.

Ofcom however continued to release a list of the ten most complained about advertisements. A mince pies advert also was recoded as being greatly offensive to many Christians. In the broadcast advert a woman called Mary gives birth, and initially she is shown in a hospital, but this later changes and she is see in a church hall in a nativity play. This advert received 806 complaints as the advert had mocked one of the religion’s central events in the year, and Ofcom agreed – the advert was soon withdrawn from viewing.