The Office of Communications, often referred to as Ofcom is the government approved regulatory and competition authority for the telecommunications, broadcasting and postal industries of the UK. Ofcom are very powerful within the television, radio, postal and telecom world. Its main duty is to represent the interests of the public and consumers by promoting competition between firms and also to make sure that no material is posted that can / may be considered offensive or harmful. Ofcom's main areas of inforcements are licensing, research, codes, complaints and more.
But when Ofcom are dealing with advertisements, they will end up referring you to ASA who specifically deals with the regulations of advertisement.
The ASA are in place to make sure that the adverts can be trusted and dare accurate. ASA stands for Advertising Standards Authority and have been going for over 50 years ands only role is to ensure that all forms of advertising from television to posters, radio to leaflets, are legal, decent, truthful and honest. But if an advert fails to meet their standards, that advert is ever corrected / amended or it is abandoned completely.
The things that the ASA do not cover are packaging, shop windows, press releases and more. There are certain parts within advertising that have specific more detailed rules to follow, these products are Alcohol, Gambling, Foods and Soft Drinks, Health and Beauty Products and finally Tobacco. There are also specific 'Code' rules for actions such as Harm and Offence, Environmental Claims, Racism, Children and Advertising, Scheduling ads at appropriate times, Displaying ads in appropriate places and also misleading claims.
The advertising codes of the ASA are mainly focused on two things when asking questions to the advertising companies about their adverts, the accuracy of the advert or to see if the advert is misleading and the second is to see if the advert causes offence to people who have seen it, if anyone was harmed or if it could harm people.
The way the ASA judge to see if an advert is appropriate or not, are the ASA Council who are the jury who decide if its acceptable or not. Two - thirds of the council consits of independent people who have no involvement in the advertising industry. The other third consists of members who have a professional background in the advertising / media sector.
The way the ASA had changed how the cigarette companies showed their products was in 1965 cigarette advertising was banned on television, however cigars and loose tobacco can be advertised until the 1990's. In 1975 new rules for other types of cigarette advertising was introduced, along with pre - vetting. In 2003 the tabacco advertising and promotion act 2002 came into force, prohibiting the advertising and promotion of advertising products, but not including rolling papers or filters.
The first advert i am going to talk about is the maltesers one, the issue people had with this advert was that it claimed to 'help keep you slim' thus giving the illusion that they can help you lose weight which is false. The advert claims that the chocolate are less than than 11 calories each which will give the illusion that they are a low - energy food, which is false. In my opinion the advert is quiet mis-leading impression that they are good for you and will help you lose weight which is false therefore it was withdrawn.
The next advert i am going to talk about is the Paddy Power cat advert. The issues with this advert are that when they was playing one of the blind footballers was kicked a cat, and some people also took offence for the blind people as they thought they was taking the mick out of them. The ASA said it was alright as they didn't actually show the cat getting hurt and shows it alright at the end. They also had a letter of support from the manager of the blind football manager. In my opinion the advert is okay and should be allowed as they had consent from a high ranking member of the blind football association.
The third and final advert i am going to talk about is the 'nice headlamps' adverts. The ASA had widespread complaints from this advert as they thought it was degrading and sexiest. Therefore the ASA had the advert banned. In my opinion the advert is a bit sexiest as they are portraying her as a good / product. Therefore i understand why so many people had complaints and why the ASA decided to get rid of the advert.
