Video of a dancing chicken, strutting to a rap song, was Britain’s most complained about TV ad last year.
The commercial for KFC drew 755 complaints on the basis it was ‘disrespectful’ to chickens and ‘distressing’ for vegetarians and vegans.
It was the focus of complaints by the group Animal Equality, which argued KFC was guilty of airbrushing the cruelty out of chicken farming.
Vegan critics claimed the images of the healthy, plump and apparently sassy chicken was at odds with the reality of intensive chicken farms.
KFC’s dancing chicken advert was the most complained about in 2017, according to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Animal equality groups and vegans were insulted by the dancing chicken because they said it airbrushed the cruelty
The fact it topped the complaints league for the past year comes from an annual survey by watchdogs at the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
It said KFC has a history of controversial marketing campaigns. A 2005 ad featuring people singing with their mouths full is the most complained about of all time, racking up a total of 1,671.
The ASA said: ‘This year, KFC’s ad, featuring a chicken dancing to a rap soundtrack, received complaints that it was disrespectful to chickens and distressing for vegetarians, vegans and children, since it depicted a chicken who was heading for slaughter.’
In this case the ASA rejected the complaints, ruling it was ‘unlikely’ the ad would cause distress or serious or widespread offence as there were no explicit references to animal slaughter.
In fact, the advertising watchdog did not uphold complaints – or did not carry out a formal investigation – for any of the ten of the ads which drew most complaints last year.
Themes of sex and sexuality feature high in the complaints league. For example, a passionate lesbian kiss in an ad for the dating site match.com drew 293 complaints from people who felt it was too sexually explicit for children to see.
The advert received 755 complaints saying it was ‘distressful’ and ‘distasteful’. KFC has the most complained about advert of all time from their 2005 ad featuring people talking with their mouth full of food
On a similar theme, there were 125 complaints about an ad for the O2 mobile phone network because it featured two men kissing.
The dancing businessmen in hot pants featured in Moneysupermarket.com TV ads have long been a cause of offence. There were 455 complaints about one version showing groups of businessmen and builders dancing provocatively.
The ASA said: ‘Many found the ad to be offensive on the grounds that it was overtly sexual and possibly homophobic.’
However, the watchdog said: ‘We thought the character’s movements would generally be seen as dance moves and not in a sexual context. We also thought most viewers would recognise the ad’s intended take on humour. We ruled it was unlikely to condone or encourage harmful discriminatory behaviour.’
The sexual innuendo in a TV ad for Maltesers drew 92 complaints. It featured a disabled woman who joked about having a spasm during a romantic encounter with her boyfriend, which some felt was offensive and overly sexual.
The use of grief and ill-health to push a brand or cause were also the centre of complaints.
McDonald’s produced a TV ad featuring a boy and his mother talking about his dead father. The boy was seen to become visibly upset as he found few similarities between him and the father. However, ultimately, he found comfort when she told him that both loved the chain’s Filet-O-Fish burger.
Another advert to receive a heavy number of complaints was dating site match.com. It featured a lesbian couple kissing
This advert received 293 complaints, according to the ASA. The group said adverts featuring sex and sexuality tended to have higher complaints than other ads
The company pulled the advertisement and apologised following criticism that it trivialised grief.
A TV ad for Macmillan Cancer Support included fast-moving scenes of a father talking to his daughter, receiving chemotherapy, vomiting in a sink, sitting slumped in a bath, and crying in a car before being comforted by a nurse.
People complained that the imagery was overly graphic and distressing to viewers. However, it was cleared by the ASA on the basis it addressed the serious nature of the illness and was covered by scheduling restrictions to ensure it was not shown around children’s programmes.
The Dove brand produced a series of ads using statistics and opinions about breastfeeding in public. However, they upset people with the language used such as ‘put them away’ on the basis this might encourage criticism of breastfeeding. Some people even argued the ads might encourage mums to neglect crying babies.
In this case, the company pulled the ads and apologised before the ASA investigated the 391 complaints.
Other commercials to make the top ten for complaints were one for V.I. Poo, which is a spray to be used after going to the toilet, and a Christmas ad by Curry’s PC World that upset Christian viewers by appearing to suggest the festivities were all about sitting back and watching TV.