Advertising Standards Bureau - Review of Operations 2013 | Page 74

What products attracted complaints?
Vehicle advertisements were the most complained about
in 2013, being the subject of 13.9 per cent of complaints.
This is the first time that vehicle complaints has been the
most complained about issue since data was first collected
in 2005. The amount of vehicle complaints has more than
doubled since 2012 (6.7 per cent) and is the highest it

has been since 2005 (15.2 per cent). This rise in vehicle
complaints can be attributed to one advertiser whose
advertisement received a higher number of complaint about
its ad which it revised twice before receiving a clearance by
the Board on the third modification.
Advertisements about clothing attracted 8.9 per cent of
complaints which remains consistent with previous years.
Food and beverages had a large drop in complaints between
2012 (23.7 per cent) and 2013 (8 per cent). Since data was
first collected in 2005, food and beverages has consistently
been the most complained about category.
In 2013, 7.9 per cent of complaints were about lingerie ads.
This is a new category and has previously been recorded
under clothing, however due to an increasing number of
complaints, lingerie complaints were recorded separately.
Complaints about alcohol advertising more than doubled
between 2012 (3 per cent) and 2013 (7.8 per cent), this
can be largely explained by one highly complained about
advertisement.
Complaints about community awareness (5.4 per cent),
retail (4.5 per cent) and toiletries (4.3 per cent) remained
similar to previous years.
Sex industry complaints increased from 2.82 per cent
in 2013 to 4.6 per cent in 2013, restaurant advertising
complaints increased between 2012 (1.8 per cent) and 2013
(4 per cent) and travel ads increased from 2.4 per cent to

0%

3%

6%

9%

12%

15%

4 per cent.

Complaints about professional services decreased from 2012
(5.2 per cent) to 2013 (1.3 per cent), as did entertainment
(from 6.6 per cent to 2 per cent) and household goods and
services (4.4 per cent to 2.2  per cent).

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Advertising Standards Bureau