Two of the ten most complained about adverts in the UK last year featured charities, according to an Advertising Standards Authority report released today.

The Sainsbury’s Christmas advert, run in connection with the Royal British Legion (pictured), was the fourth most complained about advert of 2014, while a Save the Children advert which featured a woman giving birth was fifth.

The Sainsburys advert – a retelling of the historical Christmas Truce on the Western Front in 1914 - received 823 complaints, most of which objected to an event in the First World War being used to advertise a supermarket.

The complaints were rejected at the initial stage by the ASA, which did not feel the need to formally open an investigation. 

Save the Children’s advert – featuring a woman giving birth with the help of a midwife – received 614 complaints for showing “distressing, offensive” scenes that were unsuitable for its scheduling. The regulator rejected these complaints after opening a formal investigation.

The ASA said the top three adverts on the list were the “most complained about ads in history”. A Paddy Power newspaper advert which offered betting odds on the outcome of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial received 5,525 complaints.

A spokesperson for the regulator said that the ease with which viewers could lodge formal complaints on social media was the reason for the surge in numbers.

“2014 was the year social media came into its own in making it easier than ever to lodge complaints en masse,” said Guy Parker, chief executive of the ASA.