The ten advertisers that keep the ASA in business

Every year, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) receives in excess of 26,000 complaints, and every week it is forced to make rulings on whether ads that appear to flout its regulations should be banned or not. But in the ASA's defence, there are some advertisers that seem to make something of a habit of testing the boundaries. Ryanair, for example, or Peta, which has seen every ad for the past three years receive large numbers of complaints, are among Campaign's top ten worst offenders. Between 2006 and 2008, Ryanair put out so many ads that persistently breached ASA rules, through being misleading on prices and offers, that the regulatory body eventually referred the case to Ofcom, which is an extremely rare move. Sometimes advertisers can get into trouble with the ASA for nothing more than a combination of bad luck, bad research and an over-sensitive parent.