Banned Adverts

ASA

Each year, the UK public sees many millions of ads, direct marketing and digital communications about products, services, charities, causes and awareness campaigns. The vast majority are responsible and comply with the advertising rules.  

Last year the ASA received nearly 29,000 complaints. They thoroughly assessed every one of those concerns and investigated the ads that seemed to breach the rules. As a result, nearly 2,400 ads were changed or withdrawn in 2009.
For our own benefit it was important we looked at what is acceptable and what isn’t, just in case our ideas about our Coffee advert breached any of the rules.

*(Taken from the, Times Online) by Patrick Foster Media Correspondent

An advertisement by children’s charity Barnardo’s that featured a girl being repeatedly slapped across the head was the most complained about marketing message of the year, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed.

The advertising watchdog said in its annual report that it had received 26,433 complaints in 2008, the highest amount ever, about 15,556 adverts, also a record number.

However, not one of the ten most complained about adverts, which included missives from Volkswagen, the Department of Health, and Heinz, was banned by the ASA.

The Barnardo’s campaign, which generated 840 complaints, showed scenes of a girl taking drugs and being slapped around the head, which were repeated a number of times, emphasising the sound of the slap.

The ASA said: “Many people found the repeated scenes of violence and drug-taking upsetting and challenged whether the ads caused serious or widespread offence.

“We did not doubt that the distress or offence described by many of the complainants was deeply felt. However, we considered the ads were scheduled appropriately and their aim justified the use of strong imagery.”

The second most complained about advert, with 743 protests, was a Volkswagen advert featuring a singing dog. Viewers complained the adverts condoned animal cruelty, but the ASA refused to investigate.

In third place was an advert for Orangina, the soft drink, which showed animals dancing provocatively. The advert generated 286 complaints but was also not investigated.

The ASA also announced today that it had banned an advert for the car insurer Swiftcover, fronted by Iggy Pop, the musician, after it emerged that the insurance company did not offer insurance to musicians. Swiftcover has since announced that it is changing its policy.

Top Ten most complained about adverts

1) Barnardo's - Raising awareness against child abuse

2) Volkswagen Group - Singing dog/shaking dog

3) AG Barr/Orangina - Dancing animals

4) HJ Heinz/Deli Mayo - Sandwich-making kissing men

5) Department of Health - Anti-smoking campaign

6) Tiscali - Sleeping with the next door neighbour

7) Entertainment Film Distributors - Zack and Miri make a porno

8) Walker Snack Foods - Gary Linekar/damaged bus

9) Specsavers Optical Group - Edith Piaf "Je ne regrette de rien"

10) Cargiant - Man takes mistress to Paris

From this research we have learnt a lot of things and it has brought to our attention how careful you have to be, so you do not cause any offence or show something too explicit. It is important for us to keep our audience as a whole in mind when planning our advert.

Restrictions/Regulations: History

This research will help us understand the rules of advertising so that we don’t breach them and also looking at the history of regulations will benefit and general knowledge on advertising as a whole.

Restrictions

Beginning on January 2, 1971, advertisements featuring cigarettes were banned from American TV. Advertisements for alcohol products are allowed, but the consumption of any alcohol product is not allowed in a television advertisement. Since the late 1990s TV advertisements have become far more diverse, and household products and foods that are not new are no longer generally advertised as they were in the mid to late 20th century. Subliminal messaging has also been banned.

*Taken from the AQA- Advertising Standards Authority

‘The ASA is the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all media, including marketing on websites. We work to ensure ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful by applying the Advertising Codes.’

History of Ad Regulation

1961 onwards - Protecting consumers, testing claims

When commercial TV started broadcasting in 1955, the advertisements were controlled by legislation. This was the first time that advertisements – and the claims they made - were subject to any form of formal regulation. When commercial radio was launched in 1973, they too were subject to statutory control.
In 1961, the Advertising Association, following discussions with other industry associations, agreed that it was important that advertisements were welcomed and trusted by consumers in non-broadcast media too.
As a result, the industry (agencies, media and advertisers) came together to form the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP)  and produced the first edition of the British Code of Advertising Practice. The industry’s actions meant that an official report on Consumer Protection by the Molony Committee, published that same year, rejected the case for an American-style Federal Trade Commission to regulate advertising by statute:
In 1962, CAP established the ASA as the independent adjudicator under the newly created Code. The Authority was set up to supervise the working of the new self-regulatory system in the public interest.

1974 onwards - Introduction of the levy

In 1973, the Minister for Consumer Protection, Shirley Williams, criticised the system for not being well-known enough.
In response, the industry set up the Advertising Standards Board of Finance (Asbof) in 1974 to provide sufficient and secure funding for the system through a levy of 0.1% on advertising space costs.
Because the ASA is not responsible for collecting the levy itself, its independence is assured. The levy also provides enough funding for the ASA to promote itself to the public.

1988 onwards - Legal backstop

In 1988, the introduction of the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations provided the ASA with legal backing from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). These regulations enabled the ASA, for the first time, to refer advertisers who made persistent misleading claims and refused to co-operate with the self-regulatory system to the OFT for legal action.
The ASA still has the ability to refer advertisers to the OFT for unfair or misleading advertising, but today we would refer under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008, which replaced the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations 1988.
Referral to the OFT remains a last resort and is rarely needed: the overwhelming majority of advertisers work within the system.

2004 onwards - Becoming the one-stop shop

In 2004, after more than forty years of successful self-regulation of non-broadcast ads, the ASA/CAP system assumed responsibility for TV and radio ads.
The newly-formed communications regulator, Ofcom, took the decision, in a move supported by Parliament, to contract-out responsibility for broadcast (TV and radio) advertising to the ASA system in a co-regulatory partnership. The co-regulatory agreement created for the first time in the UK a single regulator for advertising – a one-stop shop for advertising complaints.
Although there are various constituent parts, the system runs as a single advertising regulator. This is particularly important for members of the public who want a complaints system that’s easy to navigate.
From under 100 complaints in its first year of operation, the ASA now receives around 26,000 complaints a year. This is mainly due to the fact that the one-stop shop ASA is well known; has a much broader remit and it is easier to complain.

Regulation today - Advertising under control

More than 45 years on and advertising in the UK overwhelmingly complies with the Codes. Our compliance surveys regularly reveal that more than 97% of ads are in line with the Advertising Codes.
The vast majority of TV and radio ads are pre-cleared before they go on air. There is also lots of free help and guidance available to non-broadcast advertisers publishing the many millions of non-broadcast ads in the UK each year in the form of the Copy Advice team who offer free, independent and expert advice on how to avoid failing foul of the rules.
And because the industry is committed to making self-regulation effective, advertisements that break the Codes can be withdrawn swiftly without needing to resort to legal action. A range of sanctions can be brought to bear. For example, advertisers who continue to flout the rules can be denied access to advertising media space.
Today’s self-regulatory system has come a long way since 1962, winning the confidence of consumers, industry and government along the way.

2010 onwards - What next for advertising self-regulation?

Over the years, the advertising self-regulatory system has responded to changes in society and media. The system is continuing to develop based on the enduring principles that ads should not mislead, harm or offend.
A major challenge for the system is to maintain standards in fast-developing new media as effectively as in established media.

Video-on-demand

In December 2009, following the UK government’s decision that new rules relating to video-on-demand (VOD) services should be delivered under a co-regulatory framework, the ASA entered into a co-regulatory partnership with Ofcom to regulate advertisements accompanying VOD services. With the rise of VOD consumers are able to watch programmes at a time of their own choosing, and it was necessary that these new services be subject to the same standards as ‘linear’ programming on TV. 
In May 2010 the ASA upheld its first complaint about an ad accompanying VOD content, judging that the ad in question had not been appropriately targeted around a suitable programme.
As with broadcast advertising, broadcasters who continually air ads that break the Codes can be referred to Ofcom, which has the power to fine them or even revoke their license.

Digital Media

In 1995 the self-regulation of the internet began as the ASA’s remit was extended to cover advertisements in ‘non-broadcast electronic media’, predominantly in ‘paid-for space’ such as banner and display ads and paid-for (sponsored) search.
Such has been the growth in online content and usage that in 2007 the Internet became the second most complained about medium behind television - drawing approximately three thousand complaints per year - and has remained so ever since. However, nearly two-thirds of these complaints fell outside of the ASA’s remit as they related to claims made on companies’ own websites.
To address this regulatory gap and to broaden the existing protections for consumers and children online, Industry recommended that the ASA extend its remit in digital media to cover marketing communications on companies’ own websites.
In September 2010 the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), the body responsible for writing the CAP Code, responded to this formal request by announcing the extension of the ASA’s online remit to cover advertisers own marketing communications on their own websites and in other non-paid-for space under their control, such as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Journalistic and editorial content and material related to causes and ideas - except those that are direct solicitations of donations for fund-raising - are excluded from the remit.
The extended remit came into force on 1 March 2011, following a six month period of grace to allow the ASA and CAP to conduct training work to raise awareness and educate business on the requirements of the CAP Code.

Research: ASA action

ASA

(Taken from the ASA website)

Each year, the UK public sees many millions of ads, direct marketing and digital communications about products, services, charities, causes and awareness campaigns. The vast majority of these are responsible and comply with the existing advertising rules.  

Last year we received just over 26,000 complaints and assessed thoroughly every one of those concerns, investigating the ads that seemed to breach the rules.  
As a result, nearly 2,500 ads were changed or withdrawn in 2008, thanks to a range of effective sanctions at our disposal and the cooperation of advertisers who respect

Adjudications

ASA adjudications provide important guidance to advertisers on how the Advertising Codes are to be interpreted. They act as a transparent record of our policy for consumers, media, government, industry and society at large on what is and isn’t acceptable in advertising.

They publish their rulings here every Wednesday (available to the media under embargo from Monday).  

Sanctions

The vast majority of advertisers and broadcasters comply with ASA rulings; however, for the small minority who don’t, there are consequences.
The main aim of the system is to help ensure compliance with the Advertising Codes, rather than punish advertisers.  However, some of the sanctions at our disposal can be detrimental to those advertisers who choose to not comply.
 One of the most persuasive is bad publicity – an advertiser’s reputation can be badly damaged if it is seen to be flouting the rules designed to protect consumers.

Non-broadcast

The majority of sanctions for non-broadcast advertising are co-ordinated through CAP, whose members are trade associations representing advertisers, agencies and media. There are several CAP sanctions, which can be employed in different circumstances:

Ad Alerts - CAP can issue alerts to its members, including the media, advising them to withhold services such as access to advertising space.

Withdrawal of trading privileges - CAP members can revoke, withdraw or temporarily withhold recognition and trading privileges. For example, the Royal Mail can withdraw its bulk mail discount, which can make running direct marketing campaigns prohibitively expensive.

Pre-vetting - Persistent or serious offenders can be required to have their marketing material vetted before publication. For example, CAP’s poster industry members can invoke mandatory pre-vetting for advertisers who have broken the CAP Code on grounds of taste and decency or social responsibility – the pre-vetting can last for two years.
Sanctions in the digital space - In addition to the above-mentioned options CAP has further sanctions that can be invoked to help ensure marketers’ claims on their own websites, or in other non-paid-for space under their control, comply with the Codes.
CAP can ask internet search websites to remove a marketer’s paid-for search advertisements when those advertisements link to a page on the marketer’s website that hosts non-compliant marketing communications. 
Marketers may face adverse publicity if they cannot or will not amend non-compliant marketing communications on their own websites or in other non-paid-for space online under their control. Their name and non-compliance may be featured on a dedicated section of the ASA website and, if necessary, in an ASA advertisement appearing on an appropriate page of an internet search website.

Broadcast

For broadcast advertisements, the responsibility to withdraw, change or reschedule a commercial lies with the broadcasters.

Broadcasters are obliged by a condition of their broadcast licences to enforce ASA rulings.  If they persistently run ads that breach the Codes, broadcasters risk being referred by the ASA to Ofcom, which can impose fines and even withdraw their licence to broadcast.

Although the obligation to comply with the Codes rests with the broadcaster, advertisers also suffer consequences if their broadcast ads breach the Codes. 
They might, for example, face bad publicity generated by an upheld complaint to the ASA. Advertisers might also have wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds making the banned advertisement in the first place and lost the revenue that it might have generated. And because broadcasters cannot show ads that breach the Codes, advertisers might lose prime advertising slots in which a banned ad has been booked to appear. 
Finally, any advertisements that break the Codes are disqualified from industry awards, denying advertisers and the agencies that created the ads the opportunity to showcase their work.

Research: Convergence/Media Consumption

Convergence in terms of the TV Commercial

Convergence is growing ever more popular and is essential for advertising and companies/brands to distribute their products globally. TV commercials were predominantly played on television, on most channels, excluding some like BBC 1 and 2, but over time the way TV commercials get to the consumer has changed dramatically.
You can now access thousands of TV commercials through download or streaming online anywhere, in a variety of different ways.

Audiences now consume TV commercials from many things such as:Smart phones – The development in smart phones (mobile phones) has been incredible. You can now carry round a small device that works the same, and has all the functions of a computer. Providing you with access to the internet and websites such as YouTube, within minutes you can download or stream an advert with great picture quality.

Ipads/iphones – Ipads are the latest creation in modern technology and again along with the iphone you can access numerous things like a computer can from almost anywhere in the world

Internet - YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS, BBC, Vevo, Hulu and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program. You can find thousands of adverts aging back years that have been uploaded onto this website, which all have thousands of views/hits a week.

Social Networks- Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004. As of January 2011^[update], Facebook has more than 600 million active users. Users may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics. Every day millions of Facebook users share information, including sharing videos they’ve seen, showing the latest products or generally sharing links to shopping, gaming and many other internet websites. Advertising has grown with these sights; people are seeing commercials and sharing them with friends over the internet at a very large rate.

 

With this research in mind I believe it is important that we make our advert as accessible (in terms of the above) as we can. I think creating a long online advert that can be viewed via YouTube or on a web page and can be accessed by smart phones etc, is as important as creating a 35 second advert that could be broadcasted on television. If we want our advert to be globally viewed at a large rate and hit a larger audience, then considering the convergence of media and how everything is changing when producing our advert is vital

TV Advert Theories

Every Creative Director should know a little something about advertising theory. "How do these ads work, anyway?"

What we do know is that there are factors to consider:

Like most other people one way to understand how most people approach purchase decisions is with a tool called CIT:

(Consumer involvement theory)

The Communication

When the time comes to put pencil to paper, fingers to keyboard - to actually create your campaign or ad - it can be helpful to consider, "OK, what's the primary reaction I want from the target audience?"

You won't need to do this with every ad. But for new clients, new campaigns, or new ways of thinking, it can be clever to go back to basics.

What you will discover is that there are three primary responses your ads can trigger. Three basic things an advertising campaign can get people to do:

1.      To feel, to experience an emotion

2.      To think, to understand, perhaps remember

3.      Take action, do something

Getting people to think and feel certain things about a company, its products and services, that's the goal of branding, of brand-building.

The ultimate objective, of course, is to influence purchase behavior. But to do so by first getting viewers to like the product or understand the service or feel a relationship with the company.

Getting people to do something, and do it soon - to clip and mail a coupon, click on a Web site, pick up the phone and place an order - that's what direct marketing and direct response advertising are about.

In real life, of course, it's not that simple. When someone sees an ad, they can react in a variety of ways, most commonly with indifference.

And if they do respond at all, then thinking, feeling, and acting can blend together in different ways with different people. The human mind is infinitely complex.

Forms and Conventions

What makes a good Advert?

To help me create my advert I first need to research what makes a good advert and later look at successful ones to give me inspiration.

A good ad:

• Connects with its audience
• Is memorable and easily recalled
• Provides information quickly and sufficiently
• Doesn’t confuse the viewer or make them hunt for the pertinent information
• Calls the viewer to action

It’s okay to have white spaces, pauses, slow pans, or other elements that some might call a “waste” of space. Effective advertising does not lambaste the viewer with information; it allows room for the message to get the audience’s attention and connect.

1. Sentimental Stories:

Advertising that guides viewers with relatable characters in a storyline helps people to remember the advertisement far better than one that simply touts the product or company with a laundry list of benefits to consumers.
For example, in a heartwarming MasterCard commercial, a puppy finds himself astray from his family and winds up hitching rides from various travelers. In the end, the dog never found his way home as he jumped into a truck and rode down a long road. This ad actually was structured as two separate commercials: Parts 1 & 2. Part 1 posed a question of whether this dog would return home. A question that goes unanswered means it lingers in the consumer's mind. Weeks later, Part 2 aired showing the dog returning home his family, satisfying the question.

2. Make them Laugh:

Laughter is one of the highest forms of emotional therapy and allows viewers to let down their guards. The Got Milk commercials were some of the most memorable and talked about ads for years.
Rather than discussing a list of nutritional benefits of drinking Whole, Skim, 1%, or Fat Free milk, the advertisers brilliantly told hilarious stories of characters placed in situations where they desired milk after eating a delicious cookie. The milk of course, eluded their grasp every time and caused viewers to empathize with the character at an emotional level rather than an intellectual one.
Researching into these theories, is allowing me to identify the points we need to hit in order to make our advert successful. Making the audience laugh was something we decided to do as soon as we chose to create an advert and now with this research and evidence that comedy works in adverts, I think making our advert comical is key now.

Television Advertisement

A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message. Advertisement revenue provides a significant portion of the funding for most privately owned television networks. The vast majority of television advertisements today consist of brief advertising spots, ranging in length from a few seconds to several minutes. Advertisements of this sort have been used to promote a wide variety of goods, services and ideas since the dawn of television.

The effect of commercial advertisements upon the viewing public has been successful and pervasive.
In many countries, including the United States, television campaign advertisements are considered indispensable for a political campaign. In other countries, such as France, political advertising in television is heavily restricted, and some, like Norway, completely ban it.

History

The first television advertisement was broadcast in the United States on July 1, 1941. The watchmaker Bulova paid $9 for a placement on New York station WNBT before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. The 20-second spot displayed a picture of a clock superimposed on a map of the United States, accompanied by the voice-over "America runs on Bulova time.
The first TV ad broadcast in the UK was on ITV on 21 September 1955, advertising Gibbs SR toothpaste. Until the early 1990s, advertising on television had only been affordable for large companies willing to make a significant investment, but the advent of desktop video allowed many small and local businesses to produce television ads for airing on local cable TV services.

United Kingdom

 

In the UK, the British Broadcasting Corporation is funded by a licence fee and does not screen adverts apart from the promotion of its own future programming. On the commercial channels, the amount of airtime allowed by the UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom for advertising is an overall average of 7 minutes per hour, with limits of 12 minutes for any particular clock hour (8 minutes per hour between 6pm and 11pm). With 42-minute American exports to Britain, such as Lost, being given a one hour slot, nearly one third of the slot is taken up by adverts or trailers for other programs.

The growth of multi-channel television has changed the face of TV advertising making the medium effective for companies with niche products and a targeted audience. 30-second advertisements on digital channels such as Sky News, MTV or E4 can be bought for less than £500000 and adverts on more targeted channels like the Business Channel, Motors TV or Real Estate TV for less than £500 per 30 seconds. New TV channels are launching every week in the UK and advertising opportunities are plentiful.