Lesson 3

Regulation of advertising

  Lesson objective:
To cover some historical information about regulation;
Consider the importance of contemporary regulation;
Judge a controversial advertisement

Carbolic Smoke Ball Company, 1890s























Coca-Cola 1890s




















Vigor’s Horse-Action Saddle, 1897




















Pears Soap 19th Century
“Bringingcivilization to thedark corners ofthe earth”















The Soda Pop Board of America, 1950s




















Ad:Check

Big Question One: Why does
advertising need to be regulated?




Maltesers 1950s “Choose the chocolates that can help you keep slim...”


What are these advertising?
What claims are being made for the products?
What image are they portraying?
Could companies make the same claims for these
product today?
Why? Why not?




The ad for Craven ‘A’ cigarettes would no longer be allowed – regulations around advertising tobacco products have tightened over time.
•1965 – Cigarette advertising is banned on television (cigars and loose tobacco can continue to be advertised until the early 1990s).
• 1975 – New rules for other types of cigarette advertising introduced, along with pre-vetting.
• 2003 – The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002 came into force, prohibiting the advertising and promotion of tobacco products. It does not, however, cover ads for rolling papers or filters.

The ad for Maltesers, with its claim that
“It’s the chocolate that can help you stay
slim”, would also now fall foul of Advertising
Codes, and in fact, in October 2008 the ASA
upheld complaints about a TV advertisement
for Maltesers on the grounds that saying
the chocolates were “less than 11 calories
each” gave the misleading impression that
Maltesers were a low-energy food.


Many millions of ads appear in the UK
More than 30,000 complaints were made between 2009 – 2011.
Which do you think were the more popular categories?
In 2011:
• the ASA handled 31,458 complaints about 22,397different ads
• they judged that 4,591 ads had to be either change or withdrawn
• nearly 94% of the complaints came from members of the public.



Paddy Power


One of the most complained about ads in recent years. Received 1089 complaints.

220 viewers objected that the ad was offensive to blind people.
1,070 viewers objected that the ad was offensive and harmful, because it might encourage or condone cruelty to animals.
Do you think these complaints are justified?
•Do you think that the ad is acceptable as it is?
Working in your groups, students draft out the main points of argument on both sides that the ASA would have to consider before coming to a conclusion.
Q / A
If you were a member of the ASA Council, how would you respond to these complaints? Give your reasons for your decision, would you:
• insist on changes e.g. changes to the content of the ad or time it could be shown
• ban this ad
• let the ad go ahead as it stands?

















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who regulates UK advertising?

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instances.
Read more

Lesson 2

Image
Regulating Adverts A dverts cannot make any claims that they like. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has a code of practice. In pairs mindmap what you think might contravene this code. ‘Decent, honest and truthful’ The key codes according to the ASA: 2.1 All marketing communications should be legal, decent, honest and truthful. 6.1 Marketers should not exploit the credulity, lack of knowledge or inexperience of consumers. 7.1 No marketing communication should mislead, or be likely to mislead, by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise.  Lesson objective To understand who regulates advertising To consider whether it’s done ‘effectively’ • Screenwipe 1 • shitverts 2012 • adverts 2011 • Adverts & Title Sequences • The Ten Biggest Cocks In Advertising Ever What techniques do advertisers use to persuade us to buy their products? Do you think these techniques are fair? Where do you think the ...
Read more

Choose a recent case where a specific advert has received a complaint then answer the following

 Who is the case about? McDonalds  Who / how many complaints were received? 255 People  Which section of the code of practice has been breached (according to the complaint)? Inappropriate and insensitive.  Was the complaint upheld or not? No because after the complaints McDonalds made the decision to withdraw the ad so no further investigation was needed.  Why? What feedback did the ASA provide? "We carefully assessed the complaints to establish whether there were grounds to launch an investigation. However, McDonald’s took a prompt decision to withdraw the ad in response to consumer feedback and on that basis we decided an investigation was not needed."  Find the actual advert. Do you agree with the ASA’s decision? I agree with the decision of the ASA.
Read more