A blind footballer kicking a cat and call centre workers singing with their mouths full are among the stars of the most controversial adverts of the past 50 years.

Abortion clinics, the Pope in a hard hat and a naked Sophie Dahl also feature in the first chart of the most complained about promotions of all time.

The details are revealed today by industry watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority, which has been criticised for its liberal approach and failure to support complaints from the public.

Five of the ten advertisements that appear in the league table were cleared by the ASA despite the avalanche of complaints they generated.

The most controversial commercial of the past 50 years is an advert for abortion charity Marie Stopes, which was shown on television in 2010.

Critics said that allowing an abortion provider to advertise in this way normalised the procedure, even giving it credibility as a form of contraception.

It provoked 1,088 individual complaints, with the figure rising to 4,688 once petitions were taken into account.

Next in the chart is the advertisement which drew the most individual complaints, not including petitions.

A total of 1,671 were unhappy about the 2005 promotion for fast food chain KFC, which featured footage of call centre workers singing with their mouths full. Many objected on the basis it could encourage bad manners among children.

Also in the top ten is a 1995 leaflet issued by the British Safety Council, featuring a picture of the Pope wearing a hard hat with the words: ‘The Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt always wear a condom.’

It was intended to raise awareness of National Condom Week and promote safer sex, but the ASA accepted it was offensive to Roman Catholics.

Since then, however, regulators have cleared the way for condoms to be advertised more prominently, and they can now be promoted on television before the 9pm watershed.

In 2010, more than 1,300 complained about a TV commercial for the Paddy Power betting giant.

The footage of a blind football player kicking a cat across a pitch was said to be offensive to blind people and at risk of encouraging animal cruelty.

(Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)