Task 4 Regulation

Regulation of Advertisement

Advertising is a key part of television and is a regular occurrence on tv. Their are adverts around every 15 minutes. It is an crucial part of the economy. Adverts are used to sell products. The adverts gain money . This means that audiences do not have to pay as much tv licence. Tv license is used as a way of the bcc who do not have adverts, to make money. Regulation is important because adverts need to be controlled. If their was no regulation, adverts could be misleading and might not give accurate information. This regulation controls whatever goes into an advert. If they do not like what is in the advert they do not allow it to  be shown. There are rules set up to stop adverts being offensive or misleading. Regulation is especially strict  on adverts involving or aimed at kids.

Roles and purposes of ofcom

Ofcom (the office of communication) is a board who are government approved. They are the regulatory board who controls advertisment. They deal with television radio and the postal sector. There are their to represent the view of the general public and make sure their view of advertisements are correctly represented. They are their to protect the public from offensive or morally wrong adverts. They deal with licencing, research coads and policies. They especially deal with complaints from the public. The board listen to the public and deal with them if needed. If their was enough complaints they would take down the adverts.

Roles and purposes of  ASA

ASA( Advertising standards authority) is there to make sure that all advertisements going outcan all be trusted not to cause offense to the public. They were set up 50 years ago . It observes all media including tv radio and internet. They have to make sure all adverts don't break the law . They also make sure it is not misleading and is decent to show to people including children, the elderly or women. If the adverts failsany of the criteria they will be look at  , changed or withdrawn .
They control a range of areas including

• Magazine and newspapers
• radio and television
• posters 
• cinema
• leaflets
• internet
• dvds and cds

There main role is to listen to complaints by the public . They have to act and make sure changes are made to respond to each complaint. They have to watch each advert making sure it it is not offensive or misleading to the general public.  Each complaint can make an advert be looked into and maybe even banned. In 2011 31,458 about adverts. 4591  adverts had to be changed or withdrawn due to complaints.  94% of complaints .

Areas concerning ASA

The ASA always have to be careful what adverts go out and have to watch what times adverts go out. They take certain products into considerations.  These include Alcohol, gambling , food and fizzy drinks,health and beauty products and tobacco. They have to make sure they are not selling products to the wrong demographic, e.g. tobacco for kids by not putting it on when kids are watching and not aiming it for kids by putting kid imagery. They set up rules to  protect people. These rules protect people from harm and offense, environmental clams, racism,children and advertising,stop misleading clams and make sure adverts are in the righttimes and places.

When the ASA deal with advertas they have to ask two key questions. They are "is the advert inaccurate or misleading" and "might it cause offense to people seeing it , or could it cause harm to anyone,especially children. These two questions are asked of every advert making sure they are fit to put onto tv.

How are the rules written 

The ADS are judged by the asa . They are juged using the uk advertising codes. These codes are decide by two groupes the CAP (the committee of advertising practice) and the BCAP ( broadcast comette of advertising practice).The comtte is made up of media owners,advertisers and agencies.  The codes involes a wide ranges of diffrent types of advertising. The rules make sure adverts don't mislead ,offend and are socially responsible for what is being put out their. The codes also mirror and enhance the laws already in place. The ASA uses the law to juge all adverts making sure they are right.

Example of advertising being banned.

Cigarettes was one of the product the ASA banned to protect people. In 1965 cigarette adverts on tv were banned but cigars and lose tobacco aloud til the 1990s.In 1975 new laws were introduced to prevent other forms of cigarette advertising. In 2003 an act was passed prohibiting the advertising promotion of tobacco products. But cover ads in rolling papers were still aloud. This started was because of a string of complaints about ciguretts.

Controversial adverts

Levis  blind man advert

The advert is made by Levis Jeans . The advert is of a women who goes into a public bathroom to get changed. She sees a man with a white stick and assumes he is a blind man . She starts to strip , when she puts on trousers but goes upto the man face before he dose up her trousers she walk upto him and dose it in his face. Someone moves in the cubical , so she runs out . It turns out the man in the cubical is the blind man and the one who was sitting their was not blind. It brings up two controvise, which are the sexualiseation of women and mocking of diabled peopel. The ASA started getting complaints about the advert saying it was makeing women look like they were sluts and mocking blind people. They responding by explaining that it was offending people and eventually decided to ban it. I believe that it should not have been banned because it was done as light humour and it was not offensive.

Ikea tidy up vibrator advert

The advert was made by Ikea. The advert is about a kid who is playing with his toys , then finds a vibrator. He starts to play with it like its one of his toys . He then makes it vibrate and starts laughing. This is controversial advert because the it has children playing with adult things. This is putting a kid  with a adult thing . This is makeing the advert inappropriate. The ASA started receiving complaints saying this is making it too sexual and inappropriate especally because it is involving children. The ASA responded by review the advert and decided that it was too adult and inappropriate and banned. I beleive this was the right choice because it was very inappropriate and is putting a kid ina adult situation.

 Victoria's secret christmas advert

The advert is made by Victoria's secret. The advert is of a group a famous super models including Tyra Banks. All the models were wearing lingerie . They were all posing say lustful thing like "tell me you miss me". This is controversial because it is objectifying women and made men desire thin and model standard women. Lowering women self esteem of every other wom men making them feel worthless. The ASA started receiving complaints from women who did not have self esteem. So they looked into it and said it was was objectifying them so they banned it. I believe that they shouldhave changed to include some non modles as well makeing it more women friendly