10 Adverts That Shocked The World

A poster from an anti-smoking campaign by Les Droits des Non-fumeurs which has caused outrage for its implied association that smoking is tantamount to sex slavery.


This poster of a grotesquely well developed child is part of a campaign by ad agency Serve, commissioned by the Family Violence Partnership in Milwaukee, to raise awareness about statutory rape. The tagline reads 'If you see a child as anything more, it's wrong.'

This bizarre advert appears to show a young woman getting intimate with a dog. It was designed to promote a new magazine for jetsetters 'Deutsch Magazine', although quite what the 'international lifestyle' it claims to promote consists of, one might wonder.

Dubbed 'Vaginads' by the media, the campaign for Tom Ford's menswear featured a series of close-ups of naked women with a cologne bottle covering their most intimate parts. Naturally, we couldn't publish such raunchy pictures, but you'll find a variation on the theme above.

Toyota is probably regretting its ad campaign for the virtuously eco-friendly Prius. The posters portray three immoral scenes - murder (above), prostitution and adultery- bearing the tagline 'Well, at least he drives a Prius'.

A South American beauty clinic called Xiomara Coronado Beauty Center launched this campaign featuring digitally enhanced images of Angelina Jolie and Paris Hilton, alleging that they'd look that wrinkly in years to come if they neglected their skincare routine.

M&C Saatchi is responsible for this campaign for the Australian Red Cross aimed at promoting blood donation. The gruesome image of a blood filled donation pot certainly provokes a reaction.

This Benetton advert features a photo of Aids sufferer and activist David Kirby and his family by Therese Frare (1990). The original picture, which won the World Press Photo Award, was published in black and white, but Benetton's advertisers decided they wanted to use a colour version to make it seem more shockingly like a real ad. The ad was designed to raise awareness of Aids and Kirby's family and Frare approved of the photos use. But it provoked a storm of criticism from other Aids activists who claimed the campaign was in some way a vindication of homosexuality.

Bearing the slogan 'Fair trial, my arse,' this Agent Provocateur advert bears a cheeky message. Having teamed up with human rights campaigners Reprieve, the sheer orange undies were part of a wider campaign against the illegal detention of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.

Fashion designer Kenneth Cole's 'We all have Aids' ad campaign caused ripples because the posters (see above) so closely resembled normal fashion ads. The tagline 'We're all potential carriers' refers not to the bag the model is brandishing, but to Aids.