Cars driving through a zombie neighbourhood, a boy picking his nose and a girl flipping off the camera are among the ads that garnered the most complaints.
Sex and nudity, violence, and health and safety drew the most reactions among the 5000 complaints about more than 230 commercials assessed by Australia’s regulator in 2025.
While the issues drawing community concern have remained consistent across the years, Ads Standards executive director Greg Wallace said there were rising complaints relating to tastelessness or grossness and concerns for children.
“Australians tend to like good advertising with a degree of humour that’s well executed in a creative context, but if advertisers try to push the rules, then that generally does not work well within the Australian public at large,” Mr Wallace said.
A series of ads by car-maker Kia topped the list with 86 complaints over its depiction of “zombie-proof” electric vehicles driving through a neighbourhood of the undead.
Most complainants said the ad could frighten children as they were broadcast during prime time.
One person expressed their “disgust” over the ads, which they said depicted a Victorian train at a level crossing.
“My belief is that this advertisement portrays the people of Melbourne as ZOMBIES,” they said.
While the ads standards community panel decided the commercials were not overly scary or graphic, one version did breach the motor vehicle advertising rules for depicting a feature likely to contravene road rules.
Disinfection company Dettol drew the second most complaints over an ad that showed a boy picking his nose, which the standards board decided did not breach the code.
One complainant said the ad “glorified” antisocial behaviour on TV by encouraging people to “suspend accountability for their actions because someone else will clean up after them”.
Complaints are reviewed by a community panel made up of everyday Australians from a wide range of backgrounds, locations and age groups.
Most of the top 10 complained-about ads did not breach the standards: a Red Rooster ad featuring a skateboarder stealing chicken at a skate park, a Pilot erectile dysfunction treatment ad showing people discussing a garden hose, and a Rexona ad with close-ups of body parts labelled like “bums” and “balls”.
The only other top 10 breach was a Big W commercial about school holidays showing a girl putting up a blurred-out middle finger, which was pulled by the company.
“The best ad is a responsible ad,” Mr Wallace said.
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