regulation kev

An overview of the regulations in british TV advertising

There are three main Television regulatory bodies that control how companies can advertise and target their audiences in the UK the ASA (advertising standards authority) and CAP (committee of advertising practice) and OFCOM which regulates all media communications in the UK.

The ASA is the self regulatory body of the UK advertising industry this means that it is not funded by the government although they are contracted by OFCOM but not controlled which is good because it means the government can not directly impose its agendas onto the way advertising is regulated and it means they cannot censor an ad which criticises them. The ASA is instead funded using a tax on all companies in the advertising industry this is seen as good because it means it can represent the industry while regulating it. It also means that they can handle “30,000” complaints a year without costing the taxpayer anything, disadvantages are that they could be acting in the interest of the company over the tax payer.

The ASA describes its role as to “regulate the content of advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK" by investigating "complaints made about ads, sales promotions or direct marketing" there is a general code of “advertising practice” these are guidelines that advertisers must comply by when producing their adverts. But if the advert passes through these guidelines and is then aired and complained about the ASA will evaluate the complaints and take appropriate action whether that is to ban or slightly censor the AD so it is not insulting to the general public. The ASA is seen as good organisation as they are independent from the government and it gives the general public grounds to complain and be heard if they feel an 

An example of the asa stepping in an banning an advert is in the case of a Toyota advert from last year which depicted people driving around in Toyota singing enthusiastically to a new bruno mars song the adverts purpose was to show that the driver of a vehicle could still have fun while driving. But after it was aired the ASA received 74 complaints that the ad promoted dangerous driving because one of the actors shut her eyes while she was in control of the car. The ASA responded by banning the ad and issuing a warning to Saatchi & Saatchi the creators of the Ad and Toyota telling them to set a better example. SEE> "Toyota defended the ad and told the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the car adhered to the speed limit and there were no shots of it traveling fast, competitively or in a daring manner.

The car marque said it tried to portray that both the driver and passengers in the car were having a good time whilst driving, as it wanted to “dispel the myth that drivers cannot have fun whilst driving safely”.

Toyota denied that the female driver had her eyes closed at any point."

I think that the banning of this advert was a bit overzealous and unnecessary as the cars were traveling at a safe speed and the drivers eyes were only shut for a very small amount of time.  

advert is misleading or offensive.

CAP is the sister organisation to the ASA so it is also independent it is responsible for checking and updating the British Code of Advertising, Direct Marketing and Sales Promotion also known as the CAP code. There have been 12 versions of the CAP code the latest was released in september 2010. It acts as a rule book for for “non-broadcast advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing communications in the United Kingdom.” This code is useful for people in the industry as it gives them rules to work from, from the outset and they not what is and isn't acceptable so they don’t go and spend loads of money creating an advert which cannot be broadcast.

Co-regulation between Ofcom and ASA

In 2004 OFCOM (the office of communications for the government) and ASA created a partnership which gave the ASA day to day responsibility of  day-to-day basis for broadcast advertising content standards and ofcom would only be used in special circumstances. This is seen as good and beneficial to the industry and public because it means there is one main body to report to in UK, but .

Regulation and pre clearence

Before and advert can be released

• The ASA checks all ads, and releases regular surveys on unsatisfactory sectors and adverts. This is good because it means that any “societal concerns” can be addressed.
• CAP requires that claims made should be fixed before release. This is good because it means that no time is wasted on complaints once released.

For TV ads they must go through pre clearance which is check with the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising.  The body that deals with this is called clearcast they are and independent body responsible for checking that all the boxes are ticked on the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising before clearing the ad for release. This is the last hurdle companies face before being allowed to release their ad.