After record number of complaints to the advertising watchdog, Barnardo's was forced to axe its pre-Christmas campaign

"Barnardo's, the children's charity, was forced to axe a pre-Christmas advertising campaign yesterday after the Advertising Standards Authority ruled the content to be too shocking. The ads, including one showing a computer-generated image of a new-born baby with a cockroach crawling out of its mouth, were likely to cause serious or widespread offence, the authority said."

The cockroach ad copy: "Baby Greg is one minute old. He should have a bright future. Poverty is waiting to rob Greg of hope and spirit and is likely to lead him to a future of squalor." Other ads in the series, also banned, showed a baby with a syringe in her mouth with a warning that childhood poverty could lead to a life of drug abuse; and a baby with a meths bottle in her mouth warning of a link between poverty and alcoholism.

Source: December 10, 2003 The Guardian John Carvel, social affairs editor