Blog 5 - Regulation

ASA/Ofcom

In this Task I will be explaining and going into debt about the regulation and of advertisement of ASA and Ofcom.

The advertising is an essential part of modern life and a modern economy - informing consumers about the things available to them, giving them vital information and persuading them in a lively way about the merits of particular products and service.
The advertising Standards authority is the UK's independent regulation of advertising across all media. We apply advertising codes, which are written by the complaints and proactively checking the media to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements. The ASA purpose is to make advertisements responsible and out ambition is to make every UK ad a responsible ad. They are passionate about what they do because responsible advertisements are good for people, society and advertisers.

The Office of Communications, also know as Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has a wide-ranging powers across the television, radio, telecoms and postal sectors. It has a statutory duty to represent the interests of citizens and consumers by promoting competition and protecting the public from what might be considered harmful or offensive material. Some  of he main area Ofcom presides over are licensing, research, codes and policies, complaints, competition and protecting the radio spectrum from abuse.
The area of advertising which the ASA are more concerned about are:

• Alcohol
• Gambling
• Food and Soft drinks 
• Health and beauty products
• Tobacco
• Harm and offence 
• Environmental claims
• Racism
• Children and advertising 
• Scheduling ads at appropriate places 
• Misleading claims

The questions which are being asked by the ASA of a particular advert are:

• Is the advert inaccurate or misleading?
• Might it cause offence to people seeing it, or could it cause harm to anyone, especially to children?

How the ASA decided whether an advertisement in appropriate

The ASA judges ads against the UK Advertising Codes. Advertising Codes are written by the advertising industry through the committee of advertising practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP). The Advertising Codes contains wide-ranging rule designed to ensure that advertising does not mislead, harm or offend and is socially responsible, whatever the product being advertised. The Code reflects the law and in places go well beyond it. The Codes also contains specific rules for certain products and marketing techniques to cover:

• Alcoholic drinks
• Health and beauty claims
• Marketing to children
• Medicines
• Financial products
• Environmental claims 
• Gambling
• Direct marketing and prize promotions

Cigarette Advertising

In 1965, Cigarette advertising as been banned on television (cigars and loose tobacco can continue to be advertised until the early 1990s).

In 1975, New rules for other types of cigarette advertising introduced, along with pre-vetting.

In 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.