The Role of Advertising Standards Authority

The Advertising Standards Authority 

What is the background of the ASA?

The Advertising Standards Authority is the UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all media. They control what can and cannot be shown in adverts taking into account details such as misleading information or racism. The ASA started in 1961 and they replaced the self regulatory CAP and the broadcast was regulatory was assessed by Ofcom. The ASA now work as a single organisation and all power has been handed over to them meaning the adverts and broadcast will be assessed by ASA, not only adverts on TV but other media formats such as radio, magazines and newspapers would be fully assessed and handled by the ASA after Ofcom gave this responsibility to them in 2004.
(http://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/FAQs.aspx)

What is the role of the ASA?

The role of the ASA in the regulation of advertisment is assesing what can and what cannot be placed in an advertisment by Investigating the potential breaches and making sure the adverts stick to the advertising codes. The ASA regulate following the code of practice (cop) which has been drawn up by the committee of advertising practice (cap). This is basically a set of rules and regulations made up by advertisers, agencies and media owners. The Asa is funded by advertisers, collected by the advertising board of finance. The ASA are not government funded meaning that their work is free to the tax payer also stating that they are an independent organisation. (http://www.asa.org.uk/About-ASA/Funding.aspx)

The types of adverts that the ASA regulate:
-TV Ad's
-Radio Ad's
-Cinema Ad's
-Magazine Ad's
-Newspaper Ad's
-Posters
-Leaflets
-Brochures
-Email/Text/Fax Ad's

The types of adverts that the ASA has no power to regulate:
-Window shop Ad's
-In store Ad's
-Company website Ad's

The rules are simple and states that adverts must not be allowed to mislead its viewers and require advertisers to provide evidence to support their claims that they make about their product or service. Adverts must not discriminate against a race, religion or sexuality and companies need to make sure that they also have evidence for any sales claims they make like to state on their adverts.

What is the legal standing of the ASA?

The majority of sanctions for non-broadcast advertising are co-ordinated through CAP, whose members are trade associations representing advertisers, agencies and media. There are several CAP sanctions, which can be employed in different circumstances:

Ad Alerts - CAP can issue alerts to its members, including the media, advising them to withhold services such as access to advertising space.

Withdrawal of trading privileges - CAP members can revoke, withdraw or temporarily withhold recognition and trading privileges. For example, the Royal Mail can withdraw its bulk mail discount, which can make running direct marketing campaigns prohibitively expensive.

Pre-vetting - Persistent or serious offenders can be required to have their marketing material vetted before publication. For example, CAP’s poster industry members can invoke mandatory pre-vetting for advertisers who have broken the CAP Code on grounds of taste and decency or social responsibility – the pre-vetting can last for two years.

Sanctions in the online space - CAP has further sanctions that can be invoked to help ensure marketers’ claims on their own websites, or in other non-paid-for space under their control, comply with the Codes.

If the advert is misleading or unfair and the advertiser still refuses to comply with the rules set by the ASA then they will be referred to the office of fair trading and this case will move into legal proceedings under consumer protection from unfair trading. Advertisers are also disqualified from the industry awards and their work will not be recognised.
What do ofcom still do on a day to day running off?

What are the procedures of the organisation?

Steps ae taken in order to make a complaint to the ASA. Here are the steps needed to take:


1. First you must check if your complaint is covered by what the ASA do, you can either go onto their official webiste and check what media formats they cover and what they ;look out for in their rules. If you are not too sure you can find their cointact number on the webiste in which you can call them and discuss your complaint with them directly.

2.If the complaint fits the criteria then you can either write tio them, submit the complaint online or submit it via phone.

3.The ASA will then give you someone who you can contact to recieve updates on what is happening with your complaint.

4.The ASA can rewspond quickly to complaints, they can make an advertiser change any minor details and smaller investigations. If the problem is much larfer than this than a full investagation is needed which will take a little loger.

5.A formal investigation means the ASA council will rule on the matter. We contact all parties involved (complainant, advertiser and, if appropriate, the broadcaster) and inform them of the process. We ask the advertiser and broadcaster to provide evidence for any claims they make and, if needed, to provide justification about why they thought the ad was appropriate.

6.The ASA then place all the evidence and facts recieved to the ASA council which then reviews the advertisment in full to decide if the advertiser has breached any rules.


7.Rilings are published every wednesday to the media so the gernreal public can be made aware

8.Ads that break the rules are required to be amended or withdrawn, if they aren’t, we will take steps to make sure our ruling is followed.

You can find all the simple steps at this link : http://www.asa.org.uk/Consumers/~/media/Files/ASA/Misc/ASA_consumer_complaints_single_final.ashx

(http://www.asa.org.uk/Consumers/How-to-complain.aspx)


What key parts of the code governing food and soft drink advertising and childrens adverting will you think is important to bare in mind when making your advert?

When I am think thinking about making my own advert I need to keep in mind that children will be viewing this advert and it can effect them in various ways. Harm and offence research carried out by the ASA founded that 30% of young people (11-16 years) have been bothered by an ad in the last 12 months, with violent and sexual content, body image and charity ads most likely to be the source of distress. These are some points things I need to look at and avoid when making my own advert: 

- Nudity
- Sexual imagery
- Violence 
- Drugs 
- Bad language
- Distressing scenes
- Offensive scenes (Racism, Sexism) 

The ASA have stated that many parents also find it 'uncomfortable' for their children to be viewing these scenes so I would need to keep them out of my advertisement. Other things which I need to remember are that children pick things up easily meaning I cannot have any offensive language, violence and acts which little children would try to do at home and end up hurting them selves. I will also make sure my advert does not give off a wrong impression of the product and also make sure that I do not cause controversy by having scenes which are offensive to religion or someones sexual preference.

Adverts which have gave gained complaints?


The advert featured a dog singing its heart out when it was sat in the front passenger seat of the Volkswagen but shivering and cowering when it wasn't. Viewers were concerned about the dog's welfare during filming and claimed the ad condoned animal cruelty. Others said it broke the highway code. The ASA was assured a vet was on set during filming and the dog had not been harmed which means that this advert was not withdrawn or upheld.


Burger King (Food)


Burger King has been critised for this advert above. The advert shows a guy eating a burger named 'Double whooper' which suggests it is a big burger, but in reality many customers have complaied that this advert is misleading and it shows the burger bigger than it is in reality. The ASA have investigated this advert and have stated: 'Burger King said that it was their policy to follow the same protocol each time they filmed or photographed their products and only used Burger King approved ingredients which a customer would receive in-store. 'They stated that in order to be as clear as possible with their customers about the contents of their product, they needed to show all the ingredients clearly in their advertising.
'They said although they appreciated that not all those ingredients would always be visible from all sides of the burger, when filming the ad they had used the Tendercrisp chicken burger product build sheet used by staff in the restaurant to ensure the correct weights and ingredients were used.'
The ASA has banned the advertisement from showing on TV due to it being very misleading.

Thomas Cook (Children)


Thomas cook is a travel agency and in their December 2012 advert they made an advertisement showing a man letting down a tyre while people where on board the coatch, kids where watching. This advert receieced over 100 compalints due to the fear that children would mimic the advertisement, many stated that it was irresponsible and that children can be influcned by such adverts.
-72 challenged whether it was irresponsible and likely to condone or encourage behaviour prejudicing health and safety
- 69 questioned whether the ad was irresponsible, and showed criminal behaviour
- 23 asked if the ad was irresponsible and likely to be copied by children
- 3 challenged whether the ad was offensive, showing actions which might lead to a traffic accident.
Although this advert was cleared by advertising companies and also watchdog stating that it should not be shown during children program, the ASA decided to ban it. The ASA stated "We considered that older children, particularly teenagers, would be more readily able to emulate the behaviour shown, because they were more likely to have seen the ad and to be able to gain access to that type of tool."