We like to joke that the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Agency is an old-fashioned complaint department, acting as a sympathetic ear to a small handful of pearl-clutching Brits.
But it turns out the agency, which specializes in banning (potentially) offensive ads, has fielded about 431,100 complaints in its 50-year history -- that's a lot of pearl-clutching. So which fashion ad has ignited the most controversy over the years?
Look no further than the ASA's newly-released annual report, in which the agency happily reports its "top ten most complained about ads of all time." There, nestled among the scaremongering PSAs and violent car adverts, is Sophie Dahl's famous ad for Yves Saint Laurent Opium perfume, which made a splash back in 2000.
The controversial YSL spot, which features Dahl lying on her back completely naked, received 948 complaints, making it the eighth most-complained-about. According to the ASA, "We agreed with public complaints that a poster ad for Opium perfume featuring a naked Sophie Dahl was sexually suggestive and, in an untargeted medium, likely to cause serious or widespread offence."
So there you have it. No bum-baring, railroad track-sitting, rape-promoting, threesome-having ads were as offensive to Brits as Dahl's naked bod.
Refresh your memory and take a look below -- do you think Dahl's 2000 photo for YSL Opium was worthy of the outrage?
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