Regulation

Task 4-

Regulation of advertisement - 


Regulation of television advertisement is important as advertising is an essential part of modern life, it is important that these advertisements are shown as it it a huge part of the economy and is the only way for some companies to get there information out. This provides people with information about different products and services available to them. But it is very important that this information that is provided for the public is accurate and that is why the companies were created, to make sure that all information given out is accurate and not misleading to the public. New advertisements are created all the time and companies use advertisements to gain more money for there company, it is important that these advertisements are suitable for children as well as adults and most of the issues behind the development of some of these advertisements is the issue that they are inappropriate for viewing of young children. There are rules set in place to ensure that these types of advertisements do not get shown if they are at all inappropriate for families and there are over 2 million households with children in the united kingdom alone.

The roles of OFCOM -


The roles of OFCOM is to make sure that television, radio, telecom and the postal sector are providing the public with information that is not harmful or offensive to anyone. Some of the main areas that the OFCOM presides over are licensing, research, codes and policies, complaints, competition, and protecting the radio spectrum's from abuse. When dealing with advertising the OFCOM will normally direct a person the the ASA. If there are enough complaint about one particular advert they are entitled to remove the advert even though this is not there job.

The roles of the ASA -


http:// The ASA are the 'Advertising Standards Authority' and are there to ensure that advertising can be trusted. The job of the ASA is to ensure that all forms of media including, television, radio and internet is legal, decent, honest and truthful for everybody to view, if an advertisement fails there test than it is either amended or withdrawn. As well as constantly checking adverts that appear in the UK and are checked by the ASA, the ASA act on complaints that a consumer has made a single complaint can lead to a formal investigation to withdraw an advert. They also make sure that all of these adverts shown are appropriate for viewing of children, the elderly and women.

They cover -

• magazines and newspapers
• radio and TV
• television shopping channels
• posters 
• cinemas 
• direct mail
• internet 
• leaflets and brochures 
• commercial emails and mobile messages
• CD roms, DVD, videos and faxes
• sales promotions

They do not cover -

• sponsorship's
• packaging 
• shop windows
• telephone calls
• fly-posting
• private classified ads 
• statutory/public notices
• press releases
• political ads 
• online editorial

Specific rules -

Products such as alcohol, gambling, food and soft drinks, health and beauty products and tobacco have separate and specific rules that apply to them. There are also specific rules that apply to things such as harm and offence, environmental claims, racism, children and advertising, scheduling ads at appropriate times, displaying ads in appropriate places and misleading claims. They have to make sure and take special care to ensure that these specific advertisements as these are the adverts that are most allowed on television and are watched by everyone. This also means that they have to make sure they are not committing any crimes such as racism, harm and offence or environmental claims. etc. 

The advertising codes that the ASA apply to adverts concentrate particulate on two things -

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

The ASA rules and regulations -

The ASA decides whether or not an advertisement is appropriate by using the advertising code, this advertising code contains a wide range of rules designed to make sure that no adverts are misleading, harm or offend and is socially responsible, and this does not matter what the product being advertised is. The codes reflect laws that are in place to make sure that non of these offences take place, and also contains specific rules for certain products. 

The ASA intervention has changed tobacco advertising as in (1965) cigarette advertising was banned on television due to the fact that it was misleading, but cigars and loose tobacco could still be advertised on television on the early 1990's. In (1975) new rules for other types of cigarettes adverts were made, and in (2003) the tobacco advertising and promotional act of 2002 was pronounced for the prohibiting of tobacco advertising on television. However this does not covers advertising for rolling paper and filters.

Some banned advertisements -


There are some adverts that are still being able to be seen but these adverts are banned for breaking the rules of the ASA and these adverts are just a few of the thousand that have had to go through this test.


The vegetarian society -

This advert is from the vegetarian society, the advert show images of fruit and vegetables. This may not sound inappropriate but it is as it uses sexual imagery as an innuendo. People said that this was a 'gross' advert as it unsuitable for viewing of children.

Pot Noodle advert -



This advert is a pot noodle advert, this is considered rude to women as it tries to demonstrate that all women are sexual objects. They had many complaints from women saying that it was exploiting women and their right to being treated as more than just sex objects.

Capcom advert -



This is the Capcom advert, and it shows frightening imagery as it is showing toys killing themselves or being murdered. This is unsuitable for viewing by children and it is mocking people who are suicidal. In this advert there is an image of an action man toy shooting himself and a barbie with her head in a toy oven, this is also demonstrating that video games are remotely better than toys.