Ryanair’s ‘jab and go’ advert received the most complaints last year.
(Picture: Ryanaire)Ryanair’s “jab and go” promotion was the most complained about advert last year, according to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The airline received 2,371 complaints after encouraging holiday-makers to book Easter and summer holidays after receiving vaccinations, and is now the third most complained about advert of all time.
The ASA said that due to the “complex and constantly evolving” situation of Covid, consumers could be “confused or uncertain” and it was important that advertisers were “cautious”.
The watchdog reported that complaints about television adverts increased by 43 per cent last year, with 14,211 made about 5,070 ads.
Increased television viewing during lockdown could have been behind the sharp rise in complaints.
However TV adverts made up only one fifth of all complaints.
In contrast, complaints about influencer posts made up a quarter of online cases despite decreasing by 8 per cent on the year before.
The ASA put a number of influencers “on notice” after a sweep of more than 24,000 posts revealed the number of people sticking to the rules was “far below what we would expect”.
The ASA and Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) annual report shows the regulator resolved 36,342 complaints about 22,823 ads in 2020 and had a record 36,491 ads withdrawn or amended – an increase of 346 per cent on 2019 thanks to its use of technology-assisted online ad monitoring.
Online cases made up 61 per cent of all cases and nearly half of all complaints across media, or 17,379 complaints about 14,512 cases.
The health and beauty sector had the most ads amended and withdrawn, in large part due to compliance projects investigating campaigns for botox and IV drips.
ASA chief executive Guy Parker said: “Despite the huge challenges of the last 12 months, we doubled down on protecting children and people in vulnerable circumstances.
“We smashed our previous record of ads amended or withdrawn. We’re exploring holding online platforms to greater account for their role in upholding responsible ads online and we’re running important projects on the environment, racial and ethnic stereotyping and body image.
“In all of this, our increased use of technology is transforming the way we tackle harmful and misleading ads and helping us to better protect people.”
