Have Charity Shock Ads Lost Their Power to Disturb?

In 2000, children’s charity Barnardos produced one of the most shocking adverts ever for its Giving Children Back Their Future campaign. An advertising watchdog urged newspapers not to carry the image (The Guardian and The Observer defied the ban) of a baby injecting itself with heroin, and the charity swiftly replaced it with a smiling infant.

Two years later, however, Barnardos was using shock tactics again, with a campaign called Stolen Childhood, featuring imagery of artificially aged children being forced into prostitution. And its advertising campaign in 2009, showing the reality of domestic abuse, provoked more than 800 complaints, earning it a place on the list of the most complained about adverts ever produced.