An image from British government anti-smoking posters featuring men and women with fish hooks through their mouths.

Nearly 800 complaints were made about a series of poster, TV, newspaper and Internet adverts which many felt were offensive and distressing, particularly to children.

It was the highest number of complaints received by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) since a KFC advert in June 2005 which featured people singing with their mouths full, which notched up the highest ever number with 1,671.

The Department of Health had commissioned the anti-smoking adverts in an attempt to shock smokers into breaking the habit.

"The average smoker needs over five thousand cigarettes a year. Get unhooked," the posters read.

The government said it believed people would not be seriously offended by the adverts, particularly because they aimed to protect people from the damaging effects of smoking.

It had taken measures to ensure the posters would not be placed near schools.

Nevertheless, 152 people said the posters had upset their children.

The ASA upheld those complaints, saying the posters could easily be seen by children. It did not however consider the adverts breached its decency code.

The government also ran a series of TV adverts along the "hooked" theme, which showed men and women being dragged along the floor with a hook inside their cheek. The ASA received 103 complaints from people saying they upset children.

The Department of Health had toned down the images by ensuring that the hooks were not shown to pierce the skin of characters, and the adverts had been cleared by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre, so long as they were not shown around children's programmes.

But, again, the ASA upheld the complaint, saying the ads could still be seen by older children, and that it was likely to frighten them.

There were also 10 complaints about the campaign run in national newspapers and magazines and one for an internet advert, which were not upheld.