A controversial ad from the Gay Police Association which showed a pool of blood beside a Bible received more complaints than any other advertisement in Britain this year, according to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The ad, which reads “In the last 12 months, the GPA has recorded a 74% increase in homophobic incidents, where the sole or primary motivating factor was the religious belief of the perpetrator,” was called “offensive and derogatory” by Christian Watch, the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches and the Trinitarian Bible Society.
The GPA said the ad's intent was to provoke thought. That it did. The ASA registered 550 complaints about the ad and said that the police association had no evidence to back up their claim of an increase in incidents. They also said that the depiction of blood falsely implied that every homophobic incident was one of violence.
Britain's Gay Police Association was formed in 1990 to act as a liaison between the gay commmunity and the police force and also acts as a support system for gay and lesbian officers in the force.
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