The Scottish government has avoided a ban for a hard-hitting TV campaign to drive organ donation, called Kill Jill, despite a number of complaints to the advertising watchdog that it was distressing and disturbing.

In the TV ad, created by agency The Union, people were urged to sign up for the UK organ donor register.

The ad featured a picture of a young girl's head with a voiceover and text asking: "Would you allow your organs to save a life? You have 20 seconds to decide."

Then the girl's face slowly becomes faded and distorted, with the voiceover and text stating: "Kill Jill?, yes or no. No ... register and you could save a life."

The campaign had worked, said the Scottish government, with a significant response and more than 108,000 people signing up to the register, outperforming the rest of the UK by a factor of three.

It added that the ad was not misleading because there was a direct correlation between the number of people on the donor register and the number of organs available for transplants.