Close-Up: Live Issue - Was the ASA right to ban Trident ads?(Advertising Standards Authority )

Has the chewing-gum brand shot itself in the foot with its Caribbean-themed ad, John Tylee asks.

We'll probably never know for sure whether those behind the Trident chewing-gum campaign, ordered off-air by advertising watchdogs after a torrent of complaints, were victims of circumstance or are paying for their insensitivity.

Without doubt, the campaign, criticised for lampooning Caribbean people and their culture, hit TV and cinema screens at an unfortunate time.

The 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade has heightened sensitivities about black history and culture. Moreover, the Cadbury-owned brand is unfortunate enough to share its name with the Metropolitan Police's 'black-on-black' gun-crime initiative.

Hopeful of successfully launching a brand that would challenge Wrigley's 95 per cent share of the UK chewing-gum market, Cadbury now stands accused of not having heeded the warning signs that its ads promoting the brand could land it in trouble.

The commercials, inspired by dub poetry and featuring strong Caribbean accents, provoked some ferocious complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority.

One of them was from Ligali, the organisation that campaigns on behalf of the British African community. Emma Pierre, its head of media affairs, remarked: 'Mocking African history, culture and people for the purposes of entertainment and profit has unfortunately become commonplace in the European-controlled commercial and media arenas.'