Task 5 - Regulation - AS1

Advertising needs to be regulated. Regulation takes place through two main bodies, the ASA and Ofcom. The ASA stands for advertising standard authority which was established back in 1962 by the advertising industry as a response to the complains about non-broadcast advertising. The ASA are responsible for 3 things, them being: the content of advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK, they ensure the advertising standard remain high by administering the Advertising Codes. The ASA are there in order to respond to public complaints of advertisements that may be misleading, harmful or offensive; they also conduct surveys of sensitive sectors. ASA cover all media advertisements. The second form of regulation for advertising is Ofcom and they are the commutations regulator which means they cover TV, radio sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. Ofcom duties are to ensure that the UK have a wide range of communicational services including high speed broadband, a variety of genres in association with high quality TV and radio programmes to appeal to a range of tastes and interests, they deal with offensive/harmful content and make sure that people who watch TV and listen to the radio are protected from this content, they protect people from discrimination in TV and radio programmes and from having their privacy invaded i.e when peoples faces are blurred in a documentary. Ofcom respond to complaints by reviewing it against the criteria (code of conduct) to ensure the complaint is valid. Any adverts that breach these codes will have to be amended or withdrawn and the advertiser will not be allowed to use this approach again. An example of codes for TV advertising would be environmental claims, they need to be up to date and not false information this also leads into another code which would be misleading the audience and prohibited advertising.

          An example of particularly controversial advertisement would be the Maria Stopes abortion advert. The advert was deemed inappropriate because the audience interpreted the video as a promotion for abortion which is a sensitive subject for many viewers. As a result of this there were 1.088 complaints which was then dealt with by the ASA who then thought it was clear that the advertisers were promoting their post-conception service and offering advice on their hotline. It was ruled that the advert was neither advocating one course of action over another. However, in addition to the complaints there were over 3,600 other objections received some prior to the broadcast and some via petitions. As a result the complaints were not upheld.  

          An example of a recent that has been removed from the air would be the 'Beach Body Ready' advert. This advert was deemed unsuitable because it gives off the impression that in order to have a 'beach body' you have to look like like the model in the advert and this made women feel uncomfortable with their bodies and due to the concerns over its weight loss claim. There were over 360 complaints mostly because it was said that the advert objectified women. The ASA met with the company to discuss its health concerns and decided that the advert would be down within 3 days. The advert is shown below: