Health related adverts

Some adverts cause offence to a few or many people. The ASA and ITS take complaints about these and use their judgement on whether the adverts are allowable or not. I will make no comment on their decisions in specific cases, except to draw attention to the adverts which I personally find most offensive. These are the government- or charity- sponsored adverts, encouraging citizens to give up smoking, drinking, drink-driving or worse. There was evidence throughout the 1970s and 1980s that accidents related to drink driving decreased with increasing awareness campaigns run by the government or police - essentially showing that education works. Likewise, anti-smoking adverts and education have decreased the number of smokers to such a point that smoking is almost seen as a scourge on society (but see an earlier post). However, there is apparently a hardcore of people who ignore these messages. Thus, adverts have become more graphic over time until recent adverts from the NHS on smoking (the iron lung advert or the family devastated by smoking) and from the British Heart Foundation (I think) where fat came out of cigarettes have, in my opinion, crossed the lines of taste and decency. It appears that these adverts are immune from the normal standards imposed on advertisers as they are meant to be 'hard hitting". I do not smoke. I do not drink. I am completely aware of the dangers of drink driving and of smoking. Why should I be subjected to these images when I am eating or watching television to relax? I am offended and I wish to complain. I do not want to change channels, as will certainly be in the middle of watching another programme. The adverts are not aimed at me, yet I still have to be subjected to them.