The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against anti-crime charity Crimestoppers over a drug crime advert featuring two bloodied hands holding a heart, and told the charity that it cannot use the advert again.

Two people complained about an outdoor poster in Rugby with the wording “Break your silence - don’t let drugs and violence rip the heart out of your community” and included an image of bloodied hands holding a heart. (Click on the link below to view.)

Crimestoppers told the ASA that the charity had run a similar campaign elsewhere without complaint. In the three months that the campaign ran it received 66 pieces of information regarding drug-related crime, accounting for more than one third of information received on crime in the county over that period.

The ASA said: “We considered that some individuals, particularly children, who would not necessarily understand the rationale behind the image, might find the bloody image upsetting because of its graphic nature.

“While we acknowledged the positive intention behind the campaign and understood that the image had been used to emphasise the serious implications of violent crime, we considered that the image was not directly relevant to crime or the overriding message of the campaign.

“For those reasons, we considered that the ad was likely to cause unjustifiable distress when displayed in an untargeted medium and concluded that it breached the code.”

A Crimestoppers spokesman said: "We are sorry if the imagery in our adverts caused any offence.

“The campaign being run was designed to tackle drug-related violence, which can be a huge problem in some areas.

“Generally it is found that many people are reluctant to give information about this crime, either through fear or misguided loyalty, which is why it was felt that a hard-hitting image was required in order to make people think and to prompt a response.

“However, we accept the Advertising Standards Authority’s decision and will no longer be using the imagery in question.”