Best Rejected or Banned Advertising

A very intersting site.

Here you can find some print ads, TV and radio commercials that prompted consumer complaints.

These examples are samples from the forthcoming book, Best Rejected Advertising Volume Three.

Best Rejected Advertising was the first book to publish ads that had been turned down.

The previous two volumes selected only campaigns that were rejected by clients on aesthetic, commercial or strategic grounds. Volume Three is expanded by a section of campaigns cancelled by advertising standards authorities on grounds of decency rules and ethics. This website provides information about the Best Rejected Advertising competition, features examples from the earlier volumes and gives a look at material from the forthcoming Volume Three.

I especially enjoyed the banned ads section!

Some of the ads and clips presented here were banned in a country and won advertising awards in others.

Some were banned and some were only rejected by the client or the national Advertising Standard Authorities in each country.

You must see the AMY BIEHL FOUNDATION TV AD

It won a Clio in New York and was banned in South Africa.

The advertisement features a young (12 - 14 year old) black boy in surroundings of an impoverished informal settlement uttering words to the effect that in a few years time he will be involved in a hi-jacking situation and will shoot the owner of the vehicle if he puts up any resistance, and a young (12 - 14 year old) white boy, also in surroundings evidencing a poor working class area, uttering words to the effect that in a few years time he will be begging at a shopping centre, and that if the person from whom he would be begging walks away from him, he would attack this person by stabbing him three times.

And you must see the follow up shown on TV after the banning of the initial clip.

“Remember me” the first black boy in the initial clip is saying
“Some people didn’t like what I had to say about my future so they stop the adver, but that won’t change anything” Only education can change the future!

On the website you cand also find very interesting presentations of the arguments against and pro every banned ad or clip.


From the rejected ads section, a must see is The TAMPAX (Nike) ad… Procter&Gamble loved the ad but NIKE Belgium banned it from going public…;-)


This is really a very Interesting and ‘advertising educational’ web site.

A must see for every advertising and branding professional.



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