A 30% increase in complaints about advertising is down to increased awareness rather than falling standards, according to the chief executive of the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland.

The latest ASAI report shows that 25 of 27 ads that were subject to complaints were found to have breached standards.

Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Orla Twomey said the increase in complaints were not necessarily a sign that advertising has taken a nosedive in standards.

"It's just that people are more aware they can make complaints if they have concerns," she said.

A number of the complaints related to social media advertising by bloggers.

Ms Twomey said in a number of these instances the blogger did not make it clear that the video was sponsored content or part of a brand ambassadorship.

She said that bloggers had expected that because they had mentioned their connection with a particular company or brand elsewhere, they were assuming that people would realise other content was also sponsored.

However, this was in breach of the code covering advertising standards.

"The code is quite clear - advertising should be recognisable and immediately recognisable. Even if you have posted elsewhere that you are a brand ambassador, if that post, if that video is part of that brand ambassadorship you need to say it at the beginning, you need to be clear. It wasn't that there was no disclosure, but it wasn't immediate enough."

Ms Twomey said 11 complaints were received relating to adverts about a "self-charging" hybrid car which consumers felt was misleading.

She said the advertiser provided research which was reviewed by the ASAI's complaints committee, resulting in a finding that the advert was not misleading as the vehicle charges the battery while in motion and due to regenerative braking.

There were also complaints about estate agents, including one which advertised that a property was a 25-minute rail journey away from another location when the average journey time was actually 50 minutes.

She said that estate agents and other advertisers cannot take the best case scenario if it is not representative of what is going to happen.