2016's most complained about adverts: From twerking businessman to blind footballers kicking cats

Price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com dominates the overall list of most complained about ads in 2016

One of Gourmet Burger Kitchen's adverts on the Tube (Twitter/Adam Libonatti-Roche)

Twerking businessmen in denim shorts, blind footballers kicking cats and the ancient rivalry between England and Scotland all feature in the Advertising Standards Authority’s top ten list of most complained about ads last year.

Price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com dominates the overall list, nabbing three spots in the top five including the top two. Betting shop Paddy Power also features twice in the top ten and online dating site Match.com’s ad featuring two women kissing received over 800 complaints putting it third in the list.

"The ads that attract the highest number of complaints are often not the ones that need banning,” said ASA chief executive Guy Parker.

Advertising that pushes the boundaries invariably lands better with some people than others,” he said. “But last year we thought the ads that attracted the largest number of complaints fell the right side of the line."

Here’s the full list:

1. Moneysupermarket.com

‘Gary the Bodyguard’ dressed in a suit and sunglasses, dancing at a rally.

2. Moneysupermarket.com

Dave dressed in suit jacket, denim shorts and high heels, and another character, Colin dressed in a fluorescent jacket and hard hat, engaged in a gang dance-off.

3. Match.com

A women getting home from work to her female partner who removes her top and passionately kisses her.

4. Moneysupermarket.com

Dave and Colin again. This time the two characters are alone in an underground car park and each perform dance moves in a bid to out-do each other.

5. Power Leisure Bookmakers

Two teams of blindfolded men are playing football. It’s suggested that one players has kicked a cat that has run on to the pitch after mistaking it for the ball.

6. Smart Metering Communications

Cartoon characters Gaz and Leccy in a number of scenarios within a house.

7. Power Leisure Bookmakers

A group of Scottish people singing about the fact they don’t mind they hadn’t qualified for the summer’s UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament, because they could still bet on England to lose in it.

8. Home Office

Part of the Home Office’s ‘Disrespect Nobody’ campaign to help inform young people about domestic abuse. The ad features various scenarios which are unacceptable in a relationship, prompting complaints that the ad was sexist and irresponsible.

9. Gourmet Burger Kitchen

The ads feature wording, which caused complains from people who said they were offensive to vegetarians and vegans. The ads feature phrases like “You’ll always remember when you gave up being a vegetarian”; “Anyone fancy a nice, juicy, 6oz lettuce?”; “Resistance is futile”; “Burger is the new quinoa” and “They eat grass so you don’t have to” with a picture of a cow.

10. Mars Chocolate

A Maltesers ad shows a woman in a wheelchair discussing her new boyfriend with two of her friends while enjoying packs of the chocolate. She mentions how her disability caused her to have a spasm during a romantic encounter, which her boyfriend ‘misinterpreted’.