Mrs Doyle in 'most annoying ad'

She was meant to provide a little motherly encouragement to get high earners to fill in their tax forms.

Instead her disturbingly obsessive manner drove viewers to vote her advert the most annoying on television.

Mrs Doyle, the housekeeper in sitcom Father Ted, was chosen to replace long-serving cartoon character Hector as the friendly face of the Inland Revenue.

The commercial, which showed actress Pauline McLynn urging people to fill in their tax forms with her catchphrase "Go on, go on, go on", has topped an annual list of the "most abrasive, aggravating, disturbing, infuriating, annoying and cheesy TV ads of the year".

It beat off strong opposition from chocolate-maker Ferrero Rocher, Jamie Oliver and, in particular, the high street banks, according to the regular Adwatch poll in Marketing magazine.

About four in 10 people said the tax ad annoyed them. In second place came Ferrero Rocher, which has ditched its much-parodied ambassador's party theme in favour of feeble attempts at humour in the depiction of a chocolate-obsessed dinner party host.

Littering the worst 20 were banks and building societies whose attempts to be funny or human went down as well as a hidden overdraft charge. These included the musical Halifax advert, set to La Vida Loca, NatWest's whinging customers and Standard Life's talking babies.

A spokesman for Marketing said: "One of the major trends in this year's survey was the number of ads for financial institutions that wound up the general public."

Other turn-offs included the Clairol Herbal Essences shampoo ads in which a woman barrister lets her hair down, the AA adverts showing a bickering couple and TV chef Jamie Oliver's trips to Sainsbury's.

A daring attempt by advertisers at self-mockery appeared to have backfired with Nivea For Men capturing the No 10 slot. The commercial showed two men criticising a TV ad for the product, asking: "Who on earth writes this stuff ?" The answer is ad agency Banks Hoggins O'Shea, responsible for three of the worst 20.

However, the no-such-thing-asbadpublicity rule still seems to hold good as major brands such as McDonald's and Head & Shoulders regularly appear on the list but also often feature highly in similar studies of the year's bestremembered commercials. The Marketing spokesman said: "The irritation factor can sometimes be a blessing."