Adam Morris: Are adverts going on the offensive?

A heavily pregnant nun tucks into a tub of ice cream which the advert says has been "immaculately conceived". A tongue-in-cheek tease or an offensive mocking of the Roman Catholic faith?

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has decided the latter and banned the ad, which has appeared in a series of magazines across the UK from being used again.

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Yet it is hard to escape the feeling that the vast majority of Scots would not be offended by Federici ice cream's deliberately provocative promotional strategy.

But what does offend us most these days? Sex? Violence? Blasphemy? Cruelty to animals?

Well, table manners might be one answer, if you use the number of complaints to the ASA as your benchmark.

The Kentucky Fried Chicken advert that featured call centre workers singing with their mouths full provoked more complaints than any other in the last five years.

It may say something about our protective attitude to children, or even our obsession with parental perfection.

Mike Pretious, an expert in marketing, retailing and consumer studies at Queen Margaret University, says more often it is stark and upsetting images that prompt the biggest reactions.

"People don't like facing up to the truth, which would include images of abuse," he says. "It's just something they might not want to see with their own eyes, even though they know it goes on, and it is those kinds of adverts which might make more mainstream mindset people make a complaint."

When it comes to the more obviously sensitive subject areas, Mr Pretious believes little is likely to be broadcast now that would shock the majority of us.

"I think just now we are probably about at the limit of our tolerance levels when it comes to violence, graphic images and sexual content. Twenty years ago a lot of what is on now would not have been accepted.

"But I can see more sensitivities around interest groups in future. Companies simply will not touch things like Islam, because the sensitivity and reaction levels can be so extreme," he says.

So advert makers can carry on being risque but they forget their table manners at their peril.