Blog 5 – Regulation of Advertisements

Introduction

In this section of my blog I will e explain about why the regulations of adverts are important, the purpose and role of OFCOM and ASA, and much more.

Why the regulation of television adverts is important

From what I was able to learn, regulation of information is important because has you know advert is an essential part of life and economy nowadays, this is so  the audience knows whats available to them, and helping them by giving them the essential information. Because of this adverts need someone that help them, to keep their information accurate and so it doesn't mislead and its trustworthy.

Role and Purpose of OFCOM 

If you don't know what ofcom is, ofcom is basically an office which is in charge of the broadcasting, telecommunication and postal Industries of the Uk. This means that ofcom controls the output of  radios, televisions, telecoms and postal sectors. This works to represent the interests of the audience, and make sure what comes out of each one of this organisations its not harmful, offensive or inappropriate. They take care of the complains, codes and polices and others. 

Role and Purpose of ASA

     ASA or Advertising Standards Authority, is a company that was founded 50 years ago its role is to make sure that all adverts around UK are legal, decent,honest, and trustful.This also acts on complains, to make sure every audience feels comfortable and protected, from misleading, harmful or offensive adverts. This covers everything from adverts to magazines and even cinema. But it doesn't cover telephone or shopping windows and other similar things. They usually work on products that have anything to do with food or drinks, health and beauty products, so they are free of offensive comments like racism or if it has anything to do with children so it doesn't display inappropriate content. This is how you can complain about an advert , if you see an advert and think that there is something wrong with the advert, or think there's something misleading with a product advertised on a companies website, you can approach to ASA and make a complain. If ASA believes that the adverts being complained are inappropriate, they will have to be changed or withdrawn. 

Volkswagen Group Ltd (2008) 1,070 complaints - upheld in part

This is an advert about an engineer fighting multiple versions of himself, people complained about this because it was believed that it is too violent to be shown before 9pm. The ASA agreed and stated that the level of violence in the ad was extreme and should only be shown after 9pm.

Explain which areas of advertising are a particular concern to the ASA

One of the areas that they are mostly concerned about is food they are mostly concerned about this because,  food is something people consume so it can not be misleading, like for example an advert about chocolate saying that it has 0% calories, we all know this is not true therefore is misleading. 
 Another type of advert that they usually pay attention at is health products, and once again it has to do with something that you consume, at least some of them. They have to look more into this types of adverts because, they may say they do something while they do something else, or they don't add a certain ingredient because they know if people see it,they wont buy it. Therefore it wouldn't be a legal advert, because its not saying the truth. 
And the other one would be Children's, an  advert about children's are the ones that they have more concerns on, this is because, kids, younger people are the ones watching, therefore it cant be misleading,, or have inappropriate content. 

Explain the two questions the ASA asks of a particular advert

1) Is the advert inaccurate or

misleading?

2) Might it cause offence to people

seeing it, or could it cause harm to anyone, especially to children?

Explain how the ASA decides whether an advertisement is appropriate

The ASA, checks all the requirements and  regulations to see if the adverts fit the specific rules,they check this to see if it is offensive, and appropriated, and did there's no misleading information. 

Explain how ASA intervention has changed tobacco advertising

Along the years tobacco advertisement has changed, in 1965 cigarettes were banned  on television, while others like Tabasco and cigar were still allowed to be advertise until 1990s, but as time went by things changed and new rules were introduced. In 2003 the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002, was created and due to that the advertisement and promotion of tobacco products were prohibit. But this does not include adds on the rolling paper or filters.