Chicken-stealing skater and Diablo IV’s “hell”: 2023’s most complained about ads

Advertisements featuring a bikini-clad woman and a chicken-stealing skateboarder have won the honour of being among the most complained about ads in Australia this year. 

Each year, Advertising Standards marks the end of the calendar year with a list of the ads it received the most complaints about in the past 12 months. 

SmartCompany has long reported on which ads draw the ire of the nation — from Milkrun’s collaboration with the Do You F*****g Mind podcast to a “racist” TV ad for Devondale milk — and it turns out 2023 has been a bumper year for complaints. 

Ad Standards received more than 3,500 individual complaints this year, which represents 25% more complaints than the year before, and it investigated more than 250 advertisements for potential breaches of the advertising industry codes. 

More than half of this year’s complaints related to concerns about ads using sexual imagery and violence, said Ad Standards executive director Richard Bean. 

The complaints are reviewed by the Ad Standards Community Panel, which is made up of a group of everyday Australians from different backgrounds. 

The panel dismissed the complaints against all of the businesses featured in this year’s most complained about list, but they chose to uphold complaints against more...