Deliberate contextual misspelling. The 21st of July was a big press-day for the Advertising Standards Authority, featuring in two ‘most popular’ (and by popular I mean ludicrous) articles on the BBC website….

Paddy Power blind football ad stays despite complaints – The ASA received 1,000 complaints as the ad controversially and surreally insinuates the death of a cat at the feet of a blind footballer. Favourite quote from the ASA statement defending the ad, “we considered it was unlikely to be seen by most viewers as malicious or to imply that blind people were likely to cause harm to animals whilst playing football.”

Burger King advert ‘misled on size’ – Burger King’s “cheat on beef” campaign was banned by the ASA following a whopping 2 complaints the chicken burger shown was larger than the real-life equivalent. Give me a break, who hasn’t ‘misled on size’ at some point in their life. According to the article, the ASA “bought three burgers and found their thickness and overall height was “considerably less” than in the ad”. Sufficiently representative sample: check. The watchdog then revealed research stage 2… “we also examined the size of the burgers in the hands of an average-sized man and considered that they did not fill the hands to the same extent as the burger featured in the advert”. Asking the first 5’9″ man you see walking down the street to hold the three burgers mentioned previously doesn’t really constitute empirical evidence.

Poor, overworked ASA. I poke fun but it can’t be a fulfilling job. Constantly fielding complaints from the political correctness police and letters from bored, oversensitive pensioners. Ad breaks are a necessary evil but would be made even more painful if agencies faced heightened censorship. Think of how many of your favourite adverts contain elements that could be construed by some minority as controversial?