Offensive

Although they only account for a small part of the ASA’s work, complaints about taste and decency are often the most high profile.

Upheld decisions can result in widespread adverse publicity for the company concerned and marketers can be required to have posters pre-vetted by CAP’s Copy Advice team for two years if they publish an offensive poster.

The rules state ads must not contain anything that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence, and specifies that special care must be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age.

When making a decision on whether an ad is likely to cause widespread offence, we take into account: the audience who are likely to see the ad; the context in which the ad appears; the product it’s promoting; and prevailing standards in society. To help judge those standards, from time-to-time, we commission major consumer research to find out what concerns people and where they think the line should be drawn.

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Latest rulings

Optival Ltd t/a bestbookiesandbettingsites.co.uk
- Upheld
- Search (paid)
- 28 October 2026
A paid-for search ad for a betting website was irresponsibly targeted.
Bingchuan Network (Hong Kong) Co Ltd t/a Last Light: Rebirth
- Upheld
- Game (mobile/app)
- 21 October 2026
An in-game ad for a mobile strategy game was socially irresponsible, condoned and trivialised violence and included harmful gender stereotypes by objectifying and sexualising women.
Celeb Innovations Ltd t/a RiseGuide
- Upheld
- Social media (paid ad)
- 21 October 2026
A paid-for YouTube ad for a self-improvement app was socially irresponsible, featured harmful negative racial stereotypes about South Asian women and was likely to cause serious offence on the grounds of race.
Chart Prime Trading LLC
- Upheld
- Social media (paid ad)
- 14 October 2026
Two paid-for Facebook ads for a financial education platform didn’t make clear that the value of investments could go down as well as up and misleadingly suggested that money could be made quickly with minimal risks. The ads also took advantage of peoples’ potential lack of experience by implying that finan...

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Offensive

Although they only account for a small part of the ASA’s work, complaints about taste and decency are often the most high profile.

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