Here’s another entry in the Scorn in the ASA category.

If you’re anything like me, when you heard that people had complained about Peter Jones’ co-star for having “pointy teeth, green-grey skin, large ears and goblinesque features” you thought “She might bot be the Mona Lisa but that’s a little harsh on Deborah Meaden”.

You’ll then have gone on to feel a little foolish when you found out that the complaints were actually about the Gremlins featured in the BT IT support advert and not about the sour-faced Dragon after all.

Who knew? Who knew?

It does however, turn out that 11 mummies and daddies complained to the ASA that their little prince and princesses got so scared by the advert that they went on to have “nightmares”.

Now, I’m not going to be too critical of the children that were frightened by the Gremlins though, because as a child I had the bejesus scared out of me on a weekly basis by the children’s TV programme Worzel Gummidge.

For all you cocky, city dwelling ex-kids a TV programme about a scarecrow that COMES TO LIFE (yeah, that’s right, bold and capitals) might not seem that bad. But I lived in the countryside, surrounded by fields inhabited by literally hundreds scarecrows which thanks to a kids TV programme I thought COULD COME TO LIFE!

Which sicko thought that was a suitable topic for kids? Honestly.

Anyways, for those of you with a mental age over 4 or those hidden behind a settee, here’s the advert with the frightening Peter Jones and those hilarious Gremlins (I think I got those the right way round):

This is the first in a new series of adverts called “Scorn in the ASA” - adverts that have been banned by the ASA (only the one’s that I can find on YouTube though).

Give yourself a minute to recover from the hilarity of the series name before watching the first of the banned adverts:

The Bingo Association (that’s right I said “Bingo Association”) objected to this National Lottery advert because it was “misleading and denigratory” and because the advert implied that “bingo clubs generally were closed and that bingo clubs were a ‘dying’ industry”.

It didn’t complain however that advert also implied that bingo is played by scrubby old cripple women who clearly have absolutely no taste whatsoever.

I’ll never understand some people, I really wont.