Blog 5 - Regulation of Advertisements

In this task I will be explain the regulation of television advert and what is the role and purpose of ASA/Ofcom. Including which areas of advertising are a particular a concern for ASA. Also I will have to explain the two questions that the ASA asks for a particular advert and explain what decision that the ASA make on advertisements that are appropriate. Furthermore I have to explain the ASA intervention change on tobacco adverts. At the end I have to choose three controversial advertisements that I think raise a range of important issues and have to explain in detail, what the issues are, what the ASA said about it, what is my opinion on the issues and I have to choose advertisement that raise different issues such as, sexualisation of women; promotion of unhealthy food: providing misleading information and the manipulation of children.

Importance of regulation of television advert:

Advertising is a very important in world; it helps the companies, charities and governments with advertising information to the audience. In the UK overall business, charities and the government spent 16bn on advertising in 2011. Advertising is used to help promote and stimulate competition, draw attention to product or services, tells the audience how much things cost, keeps consumers up to date with new development, it make use aware of the new brands, helps create new jobs for the economy. Currently there 20,000 jobs in the advertising industry. Advertising helps change society’s behaviour and some advertisement can be funny and entertaining.

The first is a code of conduct to which advertising agencies or marketing departments must abide in terms of the laws and rules defining the ways in which product can be advertised in a particular places. Naturally, this means a general code of morals with single sectors relating to the advertising of specific products, such as food and beverage and cosmetics. Regulation is very important that this information is accurate, and doesn’t mislead, and can be trusted by the consumers who see or hear. And if there is an advertisement without consent from planning authority is a criminal offence liable to a fine of £2500 per offence.

Role and Purpose of ASA/Ofcom

The Office of communication or frequently acknowledged as Ofcom, is the government approved regulatory and competition authority for broadcasting, telecommunications, mobiles, postal services and  the airwaves over which wireless devices operate industries of the United Kingdom.  Ofcom have made sure that the citizens of the UK gets the finest from their communication services and are sheltered from cons and sharp practices, while ensuring that rivalry can bloom.  The Ofcom unit functions under a number of Acts of Parliament, which include the particular, the communications Act 2003. Ofcom acts within the powers and duties set for it under the guidance of parliament in legislation. The communications Act says that Ofcom’s main duty is to further the benefits of citizens and of consumers, where appropriate by promoting competition. Meeting this duty is at the heart of everything that Ofcom does.

The Advertising Standards Authority or better known as the ASA, is the UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all media. They apply the advertising codes, which are written by the committees of advertising practice. They work includes acting on complaints and proactively inspection the media to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements. The ASA started 50 years ago and its main purpose is to ensure that advertising in all forms of media – from newspapers, magazines and billboards through to television, radio and the internet – is legal, decent honest and truthful. If an advert fails those tests, then the advertising is either amended or withdrawn. The ASA fully covers publish and non-publish advertisement such as magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, Television shopping channels, posters, Cinema, Direct mail meaning advertisement sent through the post, leaflets, brochures, commercial emails and mobile messages and sales promotions such as special offers and price draws. But there are some advertising methods that ASA does not cover such as sponsorship of events or TV programmes, packaging, shop windows, telephone calls, private classified ads etc.

Concern’s about advertising for ASA

The ASA advertising code has a detailed guidelines on certain types of advert and carefully check that it will not cause injury or be aggressive to the audience. Adverts that contain: Alcohol, Gambling, Food and soft drinks, Health and beauty products and Tobacco need to be regulated carefully. Also there are code rules that relate to, Harms and offence, Environment claims, Racism, children and advertising and scheduling ads as appropriate times. If any these types of code rules are in advert then the ASA must look at these adverts very carefully and make a decision if or not they are accurate, inaccurate or misleading and if or not is causes offence and harm to the audience. The ASA have to make sure that the adverts are appropriate and not offensive, because if the audience viewed the advert, then they could complain about the advert which the ASA takes very seriously. Even one complaint can make the advert to be taken from the audience’s eyes. The ASA handled 31,458 complaints, about 22,397 different advert, Around 4,591 ads had to be either charged or withdrawn because of the number of complaints.

How ASA decides whether an advertisement is appropriate?

In advertising they may be inappropriate and appropriate adverts, the ASA job is to make sure that the adverts are appropriate for the audience to see. The ASA judge the adverts by using the UK advertising codes. The advertising codes are written by the advertising industry through the, Committee of Advertising Practice and the, Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice or both better known as CAP and BCAP. The members of these committees are drawn from the main industry bodies representing advertisers, agencies and media owners. Advertisement are decided If there are appropriate and inappropriate by the ASA Council if the ads have breached the advertising codes. Around 2/3 of the ASA council members are independent of the advertising industry and the leftover members have a professional background in the media sectors.

ASA investigation in tobacco advertisements

Smoking has always been a problem for ASA, advertising it has a bad effect on the audience. In 1930 Craven A realised an advert on their smoking products, which contained an attracting lady at that time. They used an attracting lady as they main persuasion to buy the cigarettes, this creates lot of problems because it is showing the audience unhealthy and dangers products that could kill us. In the 1965 cigarette advertising was band on television because of the advertisement of tobacco, if the cigarette businesses to advertising tobacco, they would be allowed to continue advertising cigarette. By 2003 tobacco advertising and promotion act 2002 had arrived, it prohibited the advertising and promotion of tobacco products. Even today electric cigarettes have been banded because of the increase of using electric cigarette in schools. Around 300 complaints about the e cigarette.

There was a recent advert that was taking in by the ASA eyes. The advert was about Kazam mobile phone. 


The advertisement started off with the shot of the back of a woman wearing just her underwear, she was shown walking around a house. Then advert cut to a scene where she ran her finger down her cleavage, bit her lip then moved her hand over her hip and thigh. She picked up and put on a pair of jeans and the camera showed her buttoning them up. The ad then cut to a close-up of her bottom. The issue was that it got eight complainants challenged whether the ad was offensive because it was overtly sexual and objectified women, and because the content bore no relationship to the advertised product. The ASA noted that much of the ad focused entirely on the actor in her underwear, including scenes that featured several close-up shots that lingered over her breasts, buttocks and lips, which we considered were sexually suggestive. So the action taken was that the ad could not be broadcast again in its current form and the ASA told Kazam to ensure future ads did not cause offence by objectifying women again in there other adverts to come.