英国评出“最令人抓狂”十大广告[1]

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A blind footballer kicking a cat and call centre workers singing with their mouths full are among the stars of the most controversial adverts of the past 50 years.

Abortion clinics, the Pope in a hard hat and a naked Sophie Dahl also feature in the first chart of the most complained about promotions of all time.

The details are revealed today by industry watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority, which has been criticised for its liberal approach and failure to support complaints from the public.

Five of the ten advertisements that appear in the league table were cleared by the ASA despite the avalanche of complaints they generated.

The most controversial commercial of the past 50 years is an advert for abortion charity Marie Stopes, which was shown on television in 2010.

Critics said that allowing an abortion provider to advertise in this way normalised the procedure, even giving it credibility as a form of contraception.

It provoked 1,088 individual complaints, with the figure rising to 4,688 once petitions were taken into account.

Next in the chart is the advertisement which drew the most individual complaints, not including petitions.

A total of 1,671 were unhappy about the 2005 promotion for fast food chain KFC, which featured footage of call centre workers singing with their mouths full. Many objected on the basis it could encourage bad manners among children.

Also in the top ten is a 1995 leaflet issued by the British Safety Council, featuring a picture of the Pope wearing a hard hat with the words: ‘The Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt always wear a condom.’

It was intended to raise awareness of National Condom Week and promote safer sex, but the ASA accepted it was offensive to Roman Catholics.

Since then, however, regulators have cleared the way for condoms to be advertised more prominently, and they can now be promoted on television before the 9pm watershed.

In 2010, more than 1,300 complained about a TV commercial for the Paddy Power betting giant.

The footage of a blind football player kicking a cat across a pitch was said to be offensive to blind people and at risk of encouraging animal cruelty.

(Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

双语资讯

(Agencies)

盲人足球运动员踢猫与呼叫中心人员嘴里塞满东西唱歌被列为过去50年来最受争议的广告。

此外，堕胎诊所、戴着安全帽的教皇与裸体的苏菲•达尔也是观众投诉最多的广告。

英国产业监管机构广告标准局今日发布了广告细节，这些广告因为尺度太大，而且没有对公众投诉做出回应而受到批评。

尽管排行榜中的十大广告受到大量投诉，但还是有五个广告获得了广告标准局的批准。

过去50年里争议最大的商业广告就是2010年电视上播出的一则玛丽•史托帕斯堕胎慈善机构的广告。

评论人士说，让堕胎医疗机构用这种方式做广告会让堕胎手术变得更常态化，甚至会让公众相信这是一种避孕形式。

这则广告引来1088个投诉电话，如果把请愿书也计算在内，投诉就达到了4688个之多。

排行第二的广告是不包括请愿书在内、个人投诉最多的广告。

总共有1671人对2005年肯德基快餐连锁店的这一广告感到不满。在视频中，呼叫中心人员嘴里塞满东西唱歌。许多人反对这一广告，理由是它会怂恿孩子的不礼貌行为。

跻身前十的还有1995年英国安全委员会发的传单。传单上教皇头戴安全帽，旁白是：“第十一条戒律：汝须戴安全套。”

这一广告的本意是在全国避孕套周唤起人们对安全性行为的意识，宣扬更安全的性生活，但广告标准局承认该广告冒犯了罗马天主教。

不过，从那以后，监管人员就为避孕套广告扫清了道路，如今避孕套广告可以在9点前的黄金时段在电视上播出。

2010年，1300多人投诉了一则为赌博公司“帕迪鲍尔”做的电视广告。

在这段广告视频中，一位盲人足球运动员将一只猫从球场的一头踢到另一头。投诉原因是既不尊重盲人，又鼓励人们虐待动物。

Vocabulary:

call centre: 呼叫中心

hard hat: 安全帽

league table: 名次表，排行榜

The naked Sophie Dahl advertisement

The Pope in hard hat advertisement

KFC call centre workers singing with their mouths full advertisement