The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regulates advertising across all media in the UK by enforcing advertising codes. There are two industry committees that write the UK advertising codes - the Committee of Advertising Practice and Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice. The codes have different sections that protect the public, such as restricting unfair advertising targeted at children. Advertisers can use resources from the ASA and CAP to understand and comply with the codes. When making a complaint about an ad, the complainant must first try to resolve it directly with the advertiser before escalating it to the ASA.

1. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMedia:Unit 45 Commercial ProductionforRadio
1. Whoare the ASA and what do they do?
The ASA stands for AdvertisingStandards Authority which is an independent regulator of advertising
across all of media within the UK. They have to apply the AdvertisingCodes, which are written by the
Committees of AdvertisingPracticeas well as doingtheir main job which includes actingupon
complaints and proactively checkingthorough the media to take action and solvecrime against
misleading,harmful or offensiveadvertisements. The ASA say their purposeis to make
advertisements responsibleand their ambition is to make every UK ad a responsiblead.
They also havea 5 strand strategy that they abideby:
1 Understanding: We’ll be an authority on advertisingand activeon issues thatcausesocietal
concern. We’ll be open to callsfor regulatory change, actingpurposefully and in a timely fashion,
whilebeing fair and balanced in our assessmentof the evidence and arguments
2 Support: We’ll providesupport to advertisers to help them create responsibleads.We’ll increase,
improve and better target our adviceand trainingso every business has accessto the information and
supportit needs
3 Impact: We’ll spend more time on matters that make the biggest difference. Focusing on our
existingremit, we’ll spend less time tacklingads thatcauselittledetriment to consumers or on the
vulnerable.But, where a complaintindicates thatthe rules have been broken, we will alwaysdo
something
4 Proactive: We’ll be proactiveand work with others. We’ll use a wide range of information to
identify and tackleproblems to make sureads areresponsible,even if we haven’t officially received a
complaint.
5 Awareness: We’ll increaseawareness of the ASA and CAP. We will makesure that the public,civil
society and the industry know who we areand what we can do, so they can engage with us when
they need to, and have confidence in our work.
2. Whichorganisationregulatesthe ASA underacontract?
For TV and radio advertising,the AdvertisingStandards Authority (ASA) regulate under a contract
from Ofcom. Ofcom are Ofcom is the communications regulator in the UK. We regulate the TV and
radio sectors,fixed linetelecoms, mobiles,postal services,plus the airwaves over which wireless
devices operate.

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3. Whichindustrycommitteeswritethe codeswhichare followedbythe ASA?
There are two industry committees that write the UK AdvertisingCodes. The firstbeing the
Committee of AdvertisingPracticewho write the UK Code of Non-broadcastAdvertising,Sales
Promotion and Direct Marketing and then there’s the BroadcastCommittee of AdvertisingPractice
(BCAP) that write the UK Code of BroadcastAdvertising.
4. State the code andlistsome of the points,includingabrief summary:
I have taken 4 images from the ASA website (which are shown below) that state the different sections
of the UK Code of BroadcastAdverting. Each of them holds a part in protecting the public as they
enforce the ASA to remove or amend any ads that breach these rules.Some examples are, section ‘05
Children’states that adverts directed at children mustn’t includeunsafepractices and unfair pressure
which helps children to be protected when it comes to certain sales promotions.Also,section ‘19
Alcohol’helps to encourage the public (especially under 18’s) to be socially responsiblewith alcohol
and followthe rules of age and publicity.

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5. How can an advertiseruse the ASA tohelp themcomplywiththe codes?
Advertisers of all sorts can usethe ASA to help them comply with the UK advertisingcodes by doing
one of many things.This can includetakingonlinetrainingmodules,contactingCAP that aretrained
to give adviceof codes interpreted by the ASA, havinga team member visityou for guidanceor
attending an event, signingup for newsletters which gives regular advicethat gets delivered directto
your inbox with extra insightor visitingthe website or onlinedatabasewhich provides the latest
adviceon current interpretation of the UK Code of Non-broadcastAdvertising,Sales Promotion and
Direct Marketing, in lightof ASA rulings.
6. Summarise whathappenswhenyoumake acomplaint:
With the ASA, all sorts of people includingthepublic and advertisers can makecomplaints.If an
advertiser was makinga complaintaboutanother advertiser it would be required to provide evidence
that they have tried to resolvetheir complaints with their competitor before the ASA take on the case
themselves. This way they think the process will assistin resolvingsomecomplaints in a prompt
fashion and with the minimum of formality and costfor all parties.
Usually there arecertain steps you have to take to issuea complaint,these are:
 If you area competitor wishingto complain aboutanother advertiser you have to raisethe
issuewith them first,ideally by registered post. However, the argument must be necessary,
factual and includea lotof detail in relation to the claim.
 The second step states complaintshould,ordinarily,besigned or authorised by a suitably
authorised senior officer of the competitor complainant(e.g. CEO, Legal, Marketing or
Regulatory Director), who takes responsibility for the accuracy of its content, and should be
addressed to a senior officer or other appropriatecontactof the advertiser.
 If possible,the competitor who complains should obtain a screen shotof the page or pages
that relate to the complaintor otherwise secure a cached copy of the website.
 Next, you have to ensure you allowfiveworkingdays for a reasonableresponseto the
complaint.However, if the recipientfails to comply and actupon the complaintitcan then
be handed over to the ASA.
 If the step before applied to you, you would have to now submit your complaintto the ASA
includingtheregistered letter that you sent out explainingyour concerns of the breech of
the codes. Also,ensure you limityour complaintby condensingthe points you have made
about the competitor.