The Councils, composed of senior advertising industry and public representatives who volunteer their time to adjudicate consumers’ complaints under provisions of the Code, identified 12 cases where the advertising in question was not withdrawn or amended before Council met to deliberate on the complaint.

In another eight unidentified cases, the advertisers either withdrew, permanently retired, or appropriately amended the advertisement in question after being advised by Advertising Standards Canada that a complaint had been received. This was done before the matter was adjudicated by Council. As required by the Code, retail advertisers also ran timely corrective advertisements in consumer-oriented media that reached the same consumers to whom the original advertising was directed.

Of the 12 identified cases, almost all infringements on the Code were by retailers, and all but one were judged as having contravened the 'Accuracy and Clarity' part of the Code. One magazine ad - by American Apparel - contravened the 'Unacceptable Depictions and Portrayals' section having been judged as sexually exploiting the figure of a woman.

Only one advertiser was judged as having contravened the Code for more than one ad: Dell Canada was cited for both an Internet ad and a newspaper insert. Other complaints upheld were for television advertising (by AIG Life of Canada, Future Shop and The Mobile Generation); for point-of-sale (by Best Buy Canada); for flyer advertising (Canadian Tire Corporation Ltd. and Real Canadian Superstore); for Internet advertising (Sears Canada) and newpaper ads (Groupe Dumoulin Electronique Inc. and MDG Computers Canada Inc.).

Of the unidentifid cases, all fell under the Accuracy and Clarity section. They included three TV ads, two newspaper ads, one direct ad, and two ads on the Internet.