Adverts which offended Christian sensitivities accounted for three of the four most complained about ads across the broadcast and print media last year.
In a year in which the number of complaints made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) fell by almost 11%, adverts which were said to mock key aspects of the Christian faith received the highest number of complaints.
A Channel 4 advert for the Paul Abbott series Shameless, in which the Gallagher family are posed like Jesus and the apostles in Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, received the most complaints for any non-broadcast advert.
In all, 264 people complained to the ASA about the advert, but the authority decided the complaints were unjustified because it parodied the Renaissance masterpiece rather than the Christian sacrament.
There was no such ambiguity about the second most complained about non-broadcast ad. Schering Health Care's advert for its morning after pill carried the top line "Immaculate Contraception". It did not go down well with Roman Catholics, in particular, and received 182 complaints, which were upheld.
Channel 4 also produced the third most complained about non-broadcast ad: a newspaper insert advertising a documentary on the Royal Mail which workers claimed implied they were thieves. Like the advert for Shameless, however, the complaints were ruled to be unjustified.
In its annual report, published today, the ASA reveals that the total number of non-broadcast complaints fell in 2004 to 12,711, a decline of 10.9% on 2003. Despite a drop in the number of complaints, the total number of campaigns investigated by the ASA increased. The number of non-broadcast campaigns altered or withdrawn after intervention from the agency increased by 8% to 1,835.
For the first time, the ASA also investigated complaints about broadcast adverts in 2004, taking over the function previously performed by Ofcom on November 1.
The top 10 broadcast complaints list was, however, compiled by Ofcom, which received the most broadcast complaints - 1,360 - for the digital television channel Auctionworld.
Complaints about poor customer service, misleading guide prices and failure to deliver goods led to the channel being fined £450,000 and its licence was withdrawn.
Religious sensitivities were also offended by an advert for Mr Kipling's mince pies which featured a woman named Mary giving birth. Initially she appeared to be in a hospital, but it later showed her to be in a church hall in a nativity play. Ofcom agreed with 806 complainants that the advert mocked one of the Christian calendar's central events and the advertiser withdrew it.
The ASA received 2,841 complaints about taste and decency for non-broadcast advertising, down by nearly a quarter compared with 2003.
Launching the report, the ASA's chairman, Lord Borrie QC, said it had never been easier to complain: "Not only has the creation of the one-stop shop benefited the consumer by making it easier to contact a single regulator, the ASA's new role also carries extended responsibilities."
Non-broadcast
1 Channel 4 Shameless poster posing the Gallagher family as in Leonardo's Last Supper offended religious sensitivities. Not justified
2 Schering Health Care Immaculate Contraception ad for the morning after pill. Upheld
3 Channel 4 'Sorted' insert for programme about postal workers, provoked complaints that it portrayed them as dishonest. Not justified
Broadcast
1 Auctionworld Licence revoked
2 Mr Kipling's mince pies Complaints it made fun of the nativity. Upheld
3 Virgin Mobile Man at urinal. Not upheld