Case Study of Exisitng Advertising Campaigns researching the role and impact of - Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and Ofcom

What is the background of the ASA?
The ASA stands for Advertising Standards Authority. ASA started in 1961 and it is a company which looks over adverts to see if they are legal, decent, honest and truthful in what they are advertising. The ASA focuses on analyzing adverts to see if they are suitable for the viewers eyes and they also act upon complaints from the viewers who feel an advert is harmful, offensive and misleading.

The ASA replaced specific types of media who dealt with complaints and advertisements  For Television there would be one company who analyses TV adverts, for Radio there would be one company who analyses radio adverts, for Magazines there would be one company who analyses magazine adverts etc. The ASA covers all these advertisements and are the UK's main independent regulator for advertising across all media.

http://www.asa.org.uk/About-ASA.aspx



What is the role of the ASA in the regulation of advertisements?
The ASA's role in advertisment is to inspect and analyse adverts which are being broadcast, and using advertising codes to see whether they are suitable for the audiences eyes. If they are misleading, offensive or harmful, then they can complain or act upon this. The ASA also deals with the audiences complaints, if they complain about and advert which is offensive, misleading and harmful to the audience then ASA can act upon this.

The type of adds they deal with are:

• Magazine and newspaper advertisements 
• Radio and TV commercials (not programmes or programme sponsorship) 
• Television Shopping Channels 
• Advertisements on the Internet, including:
  • banner and display ads
  • paid-for (sponsored) search
  • Marketing on companies’ own websites and in other space they control like social networking sites Twitter and Facebook 
• Commercial e-mail and SMS text message ads
• Posters on legitimate poster sites (not fly posters)
• Leaflets and brochures 
• Cinema commercials 
• Direct mail (advertising sent through the post and addressed to you personally) 
• Door drops and circulars (advertising posted through the letter box without your name on) 
• Ads on CD ROMs, DVD and video, and faxes
• Sales promotions, such as special offers, prize draws and competitions wherever they appear.

http://www.asa.org.uk/About-ASA/Funding.aspx




What is the legal standing of the ASA in the relation to Ofcom?
Things which can happen to advertisers if they break the rules from 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.

Advertisers who break the rules can have their advertisement taken down by the ASA. The advertisers can prevent this if they change it but the ASA has power to remove it from being advertised.

http://www.asa.org.uk/Industry-advertisers/Sanctions/Non-broadcast.aspx

What are the procedures of the organisation?
The procedure to make a complaint on an advert, you must first check if your complaint is covered by the ASA, such as the types of ads which are from magazines, radio, television, banners etc. If it is then you can submit it to ASA and your complaint will go through to the ASA and they will provide information of who will be dealing with the complaint and they will be keeping you informed.
Depending on what your complaint is, if it is something which can be dealt with and changed then your complaint can be dealt with quickly

If you go through the website which is the easiest way, it is five steps which ask you questions before making your complaint. The information you input is so they know if it is a member of the public complaining, someone on behalf the organisation with a direct interest of the subject of your complaint or someone complaining as business/company/sole trader about the advertising of another company.

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


What are the key parts of the code governing food and soft drink advertising and children and advertising that you think will be important to bare in mind for your advert?

The things to bare in mind when making my advert is for food and soft drink to only show true facts so the audience know what is in the product and they know what they are eating or drinking. Also not to show the product in a different way which portrays what it is. If i were to make an advert on food or soft drinks, i would have to the audience what the recommended limit is for soft drinks as it can be bad for your health.

When advertising and the target audience is children, you have to bare in mind it is suitable for them. This meaning the advertisement is not harmful, offensive, misleading or rude. Children adverts must have:

• Ads addressed to, targeted directly at or featuring children must contain nothing that is likely to result in their physical, mental or moral harm.

• Ads that are suitable for older children but could distress younger children must be sensitively scheduled. 

• Ads must not portray or represent children in a sexual way.

• Advertisers must not knowingly collect from children under 12 personal information about those children for marketing purposes without first obtaining the consent of the child’s parent or guardian.

• Trailers for films or videos carrying an 18-certificate or 15-certificate may not be advertised in or adjacent to programmes commissioned for, principally directed at or likely to appeal particularly to audiences below the age of 16.

http://www.parentport.org.uk/find-out-more/asa


Summarise some TV Advertising case studies of problematic food and soft drink advertising and children and advertising with video embeds and the ASA ruling.


In this advert we see woman waking up and getting the breakfast ready in the morning. They all pull out 'Special K' cereal and take a bite with a smile on their face. There is also a voice over of a lady talking to the audience. What we see in the advert is a woman pours milk over her Special K cereal. They mislead the audience as they say Special K contains just 114 calories, but failed to include the calories in the milk.

A complaint was made to the ASA that the ad was misleading as it didn’t include the calories in the milk. Manufacturer Kellogg’s argued not everyone has their cereal with milk, with some preferring orange juice or natural yoghurt.

But the ASA reprimanded Kellogg’s, banning the ad and insisting Special K  clarify whether the calorie count includes milk in future ads.

This is an advert for Maltesers which shows a woman working in a library and her friend offers her Maltesers. She first reply's no but the her friend mentioned it is less than 11 calories implying its low in calories. The ASA ruled out that Mars (owners of Maltesers) mislead consumers making them think Malteser products was a low calorie snack. The advert is showing that each piece is less than 11 calories which is showing it is a low energy food. Maltesers actually contains 12 times this amount which completely misleads the audience and does not tell them the truth about the actually size of calories in the chocolate.

The company said it was a purely a factual reference and was not intending to suggest that the sweets were low calorie. ASA saw a clear  view of what the company were trying to show and stated the advert as misleading.