Advertising Standards Authority

Advertising Standards Authority

What is the ASA and what is its role?

The adverting standards authority is an independent regulator of all of the advertisements that are shown in the media. Their role is to ensure that everything that is shown in the media in advertising terms is 'legal, decent, honest and truthful, to the benefit of consumers, business and society.'. The way they ensure all of this is possible is by receiving complaints, in these complaints they get thoughts from people who think that the advert that is shown may be not truthful to the audience meaning that it is giving the audience the incorrect information. The ASA company is funded by the advertisers which is done by an 'arm's length arrangement' which would enable the company to stay as independant as possible. The type of media text that ASA regulate fall between, radio and television commercials, banners, advertisements on the internet, newspaper and magazine advertisements and shopping channels.

What is the background?

From 1961, the ASA was introduced as commercials started broadcasting in 1955. They had an idea to make this because they felt that adverts should be as regulated as possible to make sure that it is at least watchable for the audience viewing the adverts at home. They made the ASA in 1961 so that they could act on all of the complaints that may come from the viewers by watching the adverts. In 1962 the CAP)Committee of Advertising Practice) was introduced as it was used to update the British Code of Advertising. 

Legal Standing of ASA in relation to Ofcom? The ASA have a lot of power as they are the most reliable company as they took over all of the other independent regulators. They have a very good and important relationship with OFCOM, this relationship was made in 2004. OFCOM still have ownership of the Code however they share it with the ASA.

What are the procedures of the organisation?

When making a complaint the person will have to check if all of the things that they think is wrong with the advert matches the ASA requirements. You will need evidence for the complaint as you are making it. There are some main steps:

First you must check if the complaint matches the requirements of the ASA
You can either write online, or write a letter or even make a complaint by calling their telephone
They will then act by giving you someone that will handle your case
You can do it anonymously as they keep your details confidential
There will then be an investigation by the ASA as they will investigate the problem.

The ASA act on complaints by assessing them against the Advertising Codes. They say that they like to work by 'persuasion' meaning that the audience or the complaint maker will have to put in a lot of hard work and effort into making a complaint and they may have to do it more than once.


What are the key parts if the code governing food and soft drink advertising and children and advertising that you think will be important to bare in mind for your advert?

In my advert I will need to make sure that I spend a lot of time planning and this will be to ensure that I don't make the mistake of including aspects such as;

no profanity
no drugs
no sexual imagery
no nudity
no violence
no racism or bullying

I will also need to ensure that I don't include anything that will mislead the audience watching the advert as it will lead to the viewers gaining wrong thoughts which are not what is supposed to go through.