2. What is the ASA’s mission?
• Understanding: They are an authority that focuses on advertising and active issues that cause societal concern. They are
open to calls for regulatory change, acting purposefully quickly, while being fair and balanced in their assessment of the
evidence and arguments.
• Support: They will provide support to advertisers to help them create responsible ads. As well as, increasing, improving
and bettering target their advice and training so every business has access to the information and support it needs.
• Impact: They will spend more time on matters that make the biggest difference. Focussing on the existing remit, they’ll
spend less time tackling ads that cause little issues to consumers or on the vulnerable. But, where a complaint indicates
that the rules have been broken, they will always do something.
• Proactive: The ASA will be proactive and work with others. They use a wide range of information to identify and tackle
problems to make sure ads are responsible, even if they haven’t officially received a complaint.
• Awareness: They work to increase awareness of the ASA and CAP and make sure that the public, civil society and the
industry know who they are and what they can do, so they can get in touch with the ASA when they need to, and have
confidence in their work.
3. What does the ASA take action to do?
• The ASA take action to:
• Keep regulatory burdens to a minimum
• Engage with the public
• To be targeted
• Share information with the public
• Provide advice and training support to those in need
• To be transparent so they are hiding nothing from the public
By doing all these things the ASA are making sure they are performing in the best way possible and
providing their service to the public to the best of their ability.
4. How does regulating advertisements work?
• Self-regulation of non-broadcast advertising:
• The self-regulation system works because it is powered and driven by a sense of social responsibility amongst the
advertising industry. Advertisers have an interest in maintaining the system because:
• Making sure that consumers are not misled, harmed or offended by ads helps to maintain consumer confidence in
advertising. Advertising that is welcomed by consumers is good for business.
• It means that all businesses have the same rules so some cant advertise differently to others, making competition fair. It is
important for fair competition that all advertisers play by the same rules.
• Self-regulation is much cheaper for advertisers than paying the legal costs of a court case.
• Regulation
• The ASA respond to complaints but also check ads across media to make sure they’re sticking to the rules. The ASA
monitor ads in sectors where there are potential consumer protection issues or where there are societal concerns about
specific products, for example products that are for over 18’s.
• Together with CAP, the ASA works to support the industry to help them get their ads right before they are published.
5. What sanctions can the ASA
impose?
• UK broadcasters (licenced by Ofcom) are required to
follow ASA rulings and the UK Code of Broadcast
Advertising as part of their licence conditions.
For broadcast advertisements, the responsibility to
withdraw, change or reschedule a commercial lies
with the broadcasters.
Broadcasters are required by a condition of their
broadcast licences to enforce ASA rulings. If they
frequently run ads that don’t follow the rules of the
Broadcast Advertising Code, broadcasters risk being
referred by the ASA to Ofcom, which can impose fines
and even withdraw their licence to broadcast.
Although responsibility for sticking to the Code rests
with the broadcaster, advertisers also suffer
consequences if their broadcast ads break the rules.
• If advertisers break rules they may face bad publicity,
might lose money on making the advert and they may
lose prime advertising slots if they continue to break
rules.
7. What are the overarching principles of this
code?
• The overarching principles of this Code are that advertisements
should not mislead or cause serious or widespread offence or harm,
especially to children or the vulnerable. The ASA may decline to
investigate where there is a dispute which, in its view, would be
better resolved by another regulator or through the Courts.
8. What are the advertisers responsible for?
• Broadcasters are responsible for ensuring that the advertisements
they transmit comply with both the spirit and the letter of the Code.
All compliance matters (copy clearance, content, scheduling for
example) are the ultimate responsibility of each broadcaster.
9. What are the four basic rules of the code?
• 1.) Advertisements must reflect the spirit, not merely the letter, of the
Code.
• 2.) Advertisements must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to
the audience and to society.
• 3.) Advertisements must comply with the law and broadcasters must
make that a condition of acceptance.
• 4.) Advertisements must not state or imply that a product can legally
be sold if it cannot.
10. Misleading Advertising
• Don’t exaggerate
• In my advert I can not tell the
customer that my product does
something that it doesn’t. For
example, in my advert I will not
say the deodorant will get rid of
sweat completely because it
wont.
11. Harm and Offence
• Advertisements must not be harmful or offensive. Advertisements must take
account of generally accepted standards to minimise the risk of causing harm or
serious or widespread offence. The context in which an advertisement is likely to
be broadcast must be taken into account to avoid unsuitable scheduling. For
example, Advertisements must contain nothing that could cause physical, mental,
moral or social harm to persons under the age of 18.
• In my advert I will not show anyone drinking alcohol or smoking as this could
encourage people under 18 to do this.
12. Children
• In the advert children must not show explicit or encouraging content
as the audience watching could be children. It should not encourage
children to perform irresponsible behaviour that could put them in
danger of harm or risk.
• In my advert I will not show anyone drinking, smoking, performing
dangerous acts etc. As this may encourage children and put them at
harm.
13. Privacy
• Living individuals should be protected from unwarranted
infringements of privacy. Broadcasters should respect an
individual's right to his or her private and family life, home
and correspondence. Advertisements featuring an
individual should not imply that that individual endorses a
product if he or she does not.
• In my advert the people featured must give permission
before I include them. Unless it is a crowd shot, even then
people should not be clearly visible/recognisable.
14. Environmental Claims
• Advertisements should take account
of Government guidance including
the Green Claims Code published by
DEFRA and BIS.
• The meaning of all terms used in
advertisements must be clear to
consumers.
• This means that in my adverts I will
make sure all terms used in the
advert are explained and are easy to
understand to make sure it is clear for
the customer.
15. Scheduling
• Broadcasters must take special
care when scheduling
advertisements that might be
unsuitable for children or young
persons or the audience of
religious programmes or for
broadcast around sensitive
programming or news items.
• In my adverts I will not include any
explicit or inappropriate content to
ensure it could be broadcast as an
advert at anytime. Meaning, no
one will be offended by my
content.
17. • Ad description
• A TV ad and video ad on the Nivea UK YouTube channel, seen in April 2016, promoted Nivea Protect & Care antiperspirant:
• a. The TV ad featured a voice-over that stated, “On one side you want strong deodorant protection that lasts all day long. On
the other side, you want that soft skin feel. Now you can have both, with the care of Nivea”. On-screen text stated “48 hour
protection” and “soft on skin”. A tin of Nivea Crème was shown rolling toward and merging with a generic aerosol canister,
which changed to take on the branding of Nivea Protect & Care antiperspirant.
• b. The YouTube ad was identical to ad (a).
• Issue
• Unilever UK Ltd, who believed that the ads implied that Nivea Protect & Care antiperspirant contained the same or similar
ingredients to Nivea Crème, and therefore had similar skin care properties, challenged whether the ad was misleading and
could be substantiated.
• Response
• Beiersdorf UK Ltd said that 10 of the 16 ingredients contained within Nivea Protect & Care antiperspirant were well known
for their caring and/or skin conditioning properties. These included octyldodecanol, glycerine and panthenol, which were
also contained within Nivea Crème. They provided entries on each of the listed ingredients from the Personal Care Products
Council online database, which they said demonstrated that their caring and skin conditioning functions were well
established. They also provided details of other Nivea moisturising products which included some of the same ingredients.
• They said that the ad did not set out to demonstrate or imply that Nivea Protect & Care antiperspirant had the same skin
care ingredients and properties as Nivea Crème, and they did not believe that consumers would interpret it that way.
18. • Ad description
• A TV ad, for Sure Invisible Black+White deodorant, stated "Trust the experts with our superior Black
and White protection … superior to Nivea against yellow stains …". A bar chart entitled "YELLOW
STAIN PROTECTION" was seen that showed a higher reading for a Sure product than a Nivea one.
On-screen text stated "For more details go to [website address] *Instrumental testing".
• Issue
• Beiersdorf UK Ltd challenged whether the ad's claim for Sure Invisible Black+White antiperspirant to
be superior to Nivea Black and White antiperspirant could be substantiated.
• Response
• Unilever UK Ltd explained that the ad represented a new formula of Sure Invisible Black+White,
which offered improved yellow stains protection compared to the previous formula and the best
protection against white marks and yellow stains within the Sure range. They said independent
testing had also shown that Sure Invisible Black+White offered better anti-yellow stains protection
compared to Nivea Invisible Black and White, the leading competing product. The ad included two
distinct claims: "our superior black and white protection" and "superior to Nivea against yellow
stains".
