The Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland has warned the industry about using aggressive or violent images to promote products. In its annual report published yesterday, the association said public concern about violence was reflected in a number of complaints received during the year, including one relating to a cider advertisement.
It showed an apple with a tear, and the slogan: "She was sweet, tender and juicy, so we flattened her." The complainant considered that the message appeared to condone violence against women and there were also complaints that the message appeared to associate violence with alcohol.
It added that the complaints were upheld and the poster withdrawn as were two against clothing companies. One had used the image of a woman in a tearful and distressed state and the other was an adapted version of a famous war photograph showing a policeman shooting a man in the head.
Overall, the number of complaints received by the ASAI fell from 522 in 1995-96 to 496 for the 1996-97 period.
The organisation, which is responsible for enforcing standards in the industry, reported that the number of complaints in the outdoor advertisement sector fell by almost half, from 204 to 108.
Nevertheless, it added that these still accounted for 22 per cent of the total number of complaints. A total of 208 complaints were received in respect of the print media.
The report said this represented a 30 per cent increase on last year's level when 157 complaints were received.
The report said not all complaints lead to a formal adjudication by the authority's complaints committee and for 1996-97 some 214 complaints were pursued in respect of 121 separate advertisements.
"This year, as in previous years, the alcohol sector gave rise to the largest single block of 48 pursued complaints, or 22 per cent of the total," the report added.
"The travel/holiday sector produced the second-highest number of pursued complaints at 41, or some 19 per cent. The committee upheld 143 or some 67 per cent of the pursued cases as constituting breaches of the codes," it said.