SEX NOT A BIG FACTOR IN U.K. AD COMPLAINTS

“No Sex Please, We’re British,” may have been the title of a classic comedy that had a long run in the 1970s in London’s West End, taking on the British reputation for prudery, but when it comes to television advertising, it’s the Americans who are more likely to raise the “no sex” cry. While sexy ads continue to rile religious and conservative family organizations in the U.S., spurring them to file thousands of complaints with the FCC, the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority indicated on Wednesday that of 25,214 complaints it received in 2010, relatively few dealt with sexual content. The most complained-about ad — there were 1,313 complaints — was one for Irish bookmakers Paddy Power in which a blind soccer player appears to kick a cat into a tree. Letter writers maintained that the ad could encourage animal cruelty and was offensive to the blind. But the ASA said the ad was “surreal and light-hearted,” and it turned out that the blind soccer players seen in the ad were in reality blind soccer players — who defended it. (The cat is seen unharmed at the end.)