The decisions are in: key results from 2021 Ad Standards Community Panel report

Jun 6, 2022 | Self-Regulation

Ad Standards: key results from 2021 Ad Standards Community Panel report
A man urinating at a shop front was 2021’s most complained about ad.

The decisions are in: key results from 2021 Ad Standards Community Panel report

A man urinating at a shop front was 2021’s most complained about ad. The TV ad by Crazy Domains received almost 300 complaints and was taken off air after being upheld against the Code of Ethics for a depiction of unhygienic behaviour which would breach the law and was therefore a breach of Code of Ethics’ prevailing community standards on health and safety.


The ad received almost 300 complaints and was taken off the air. Just released, the 2021 Review of Operations report by Ad Standards noted a jump in complaints with a 33% increase from 2020. More than 4,500 complaints were lodged in 2021 and the Ad Standards Community Panel considered a total of 315 cases and upheld complaints about 85 individual ads.

 

Here are the key statistics from the report

  • 75% of all complaints related to issues covered by the Code of Ethics.
  • The top concern was issues related to sex, sexuality and nudity – 21 per cent compared to 32 per cent in 2020.
  • Complaints about health and safety doubled compared with 2020 – 16.5% of all cases.
  • This relates directly to the most complained about ad of 2021 which raised issues under the health and safety.
  • Complaints linked to the Environmental Claims Code, although still relatively low, are increasing year on year and almost tripled in 2021 from 0.45 per cent in 2020 to 1.37 per cent.
  • Food and beverages is the most complained about product category accounting for 13.2% of all complaints followed by information technology (10%), political/social messaging (8.7%) and gambling (8.6%).
  • Television is still the medium that attracts the most complaints (36.2%) however internet/social media has increased year on year from 15.9% in 2020 to 23.6% in 2021.

 

Ad standards gives a voice to community concerns about advertising content and supports the Ad Standards Community Panel and Industry Jury – the two independent bodies that determine consumer and competitor complaints under the advertising codes. The Community Panel is a diverse group of community representatives from all over Australia, currently there is 21 members on the Panel. To receive regular updates about decisions from the Panel subscribe to the newsletter here or follow them on LinkedIn.