Advertising Standards Authority: Action Taken

Every year, there are thousands of adverts being promoted by companies wishing to sell products or services, however there also a minority of adverts that comply against the advertising rules. The importance of adverts for the ASA is that no advert harms, offends or attempts to mislead the viewer, adverts must be socially responsible.

The advertising codes do however, have specific standards for certain types of products that are being advertised and certain ways these products must be marketed. Some of these products include Alcohol, Health and Beauty Claims, Children, Medicines, Financial Products, Environmental Claims, Gambling, Direct Marketing and Prize Promotions.
These rules add protection to the consumer as well as consumer protection law and make sure that UK advertising is responsible.

In 2010, the ASA received just over 25,214 complaints about 13,074 adverts. The ASA assessed every concern and investigated the adverts which breached the rules. Because of this, 2,226 advertising campaigns were either changed or withdrawn in 2010.

Adjunctions;

The ASA adjunctions provide important guidance to advertisers on the Advertising Codes. They act as a transparent record of the ASA policy for consumers, media, government and industry. They also allow society to know what is and isn’t acceptable in advertising.

Weekly Adjudications

Sanctions;

The majority of advertisers comply with the ASA codes, but for those that do not comply with the codes, there are consequences regarding this. Some sanctions can reflect badly on the companies as one punishment could result in bad publicity which may cause the company to lose some consumers, their reputation could be damaged if the company is seen continuously ignoring the rules.

Non-Broadcast;

Most of the sanctions that are given to non-broadcasted advertising are given through CAP (Committee of Advertising Practice) There are several different CAP sanctions which are given for different circumstances.

Advert Alerts;

CAP can give out issue alerts to its member and the media, advising them to withold services that advertise certain products such as access to space.

Withdrawal of Trading Privileges;

Members of CAP can revoke, withdraw or withhold recognition or trading privileges, an example of this is the Royal Mail could withdraw its discount for bulk mail which could cost companies and marketing campaigns a lot more money.

Pre-Vetting;

Advertisers who continuously offend could have their marketing material vetted before publication, pre-vetting can last for long periods of time.

Sanctions in Digital Space;

CAP have more sanctions that can be invoked to make sure that marketers claims on their own websites or those using non-paid space comply with the CAP codes.

CAP can ask those who do not comply to remove them from their websites.

Broadcast:

When it comes to advertising through broadcasting, the choice of withdrawing, changing or rescheduling is decided by the broadcasters. They are obliged to follow the ASA rules, if they continuously run advertisement that are against the rules, there is then a risk that the broadcasters may be referred to Ofcom by the ASA, Ofcom can then fine the broadcaster or even withdraw their licence to broadcast.

Advertisers also suffer from this consequence, an example of this would be bad publicity which would come from an upheld complaint to the ASA. Advertisers may have lost huge amount of money from this advert that is now banned and won't be used to promote the product and lost the income they may have gained from it. Any advertisements that break the codes are disqualified from industry awards, denying advertisers and the agencies the created the adverts the opportunity to showcase their work.

All information taken and edited from the ASA Official Website.

Convergence and Media Consumption

Convergence is becoming more important to companies as it begins to become more popular, it is essential for advertising for companie to be able to distribute their products around the globe.

Originially and still today, adverts were played on the television, on most channels excluding BBC channels, this was the biggest way that viewers were shown different types of products to buy, however as times have changed and the internet has grown, television is no longer the biggest way to promote a product though it is still one of the biggest.

There are many different ways that the audience can now be exposed to advertising as well as television and radio, these include;


Internet;

The internet has many different ways to advertise different types of products, it gives direct links to websites to buy the products and provides pop-ups of products that may interest some viewers. However, its biggest advertiser on the net is most likely to be YouTube.

Youtube is described as a video-sharing website, where any individual is able to upload any type of appropriate video content to the site. As YouTube's popularity has risen, other major corporations have also made a channel in order for themselves to be able to upload their own content as another way to advertise. As some videos on the site gain millions of viewers, companies see it as a positive way to advertise to other audiences across the world.

These companies include BBC, Channel4 and can upload anything between News Programmes to Movie Trailers. YouTube also has many adverts uploaded to its sites that go many years back, adverts from the 90s, 80s etc. Including adverts that are no longer shown on television.

Social Networking;

There are many different websites that involve social networking that have cropped up on the internet over the years, some of these include; MySpace, Friends Reunited and Bebo. The most popular social networking websites on the net are most definitely Facebook and Twitter. 

Facebook launched in 2004, it has over 800 million active users, users are able to create a personal profile and add personal details about them if they choose to, add other users as friends, upload pictures and exchange messages between one another. Also, users are also able to link other users to videos, this is one way of successful advertising as it means the advert has made some kind of impact on the viewer. Other ways of advertising on the website is through people's comments about a certain product they may have bought or wish to buy, websites that they have visited and sharing links to products they want to buy or share an interest in.

Twitter is similar to Facebook in the sense that a user is able to create an online profile and the main use of the website is by having conversations with others or making comments. However, instead of adding friends the option is to 'follow' other users who may then wish to follow you back. Also instead of uploading a status like Facebook, you can upload a 'tweet' using a limit of 140 characters on Twitter. Users are also able to share links between others and upload pictures. The website was created in 2006 and since then has had over 300 million users and over 300 million tweets. Many websites are now making their own twitters with the option for consumers to follow them which gives them updates or even sneak peeks as a marketing concept to new products to gain more publicity.

Using social networking sites to advertise is a great way to get more advertising out there since people are constantly sharing links with one another, allowing adverts to travel from consumer to consumer much faster then any advert on the televsion would be able to. 

Phones;

People are now able to carry around small devices such as phones where they are able to get in touch with people all around the world. Phones like Smart Phones or Blackberrys or iPhones offer an option to access the internet, here they are able to access websites like YouTube, Twitter or Facebook at any given time. Within minutes, you are able to download or watch an advert on your phone with excellent quality.

This research gives good ideas as to how to advertise our own advert and what would be the best way to gain viewers. It also tells us which better ways there are to upload a certain advert, for example, our 1-2 minute advert might do better being uploaded to YouTube whilst our shortened, 30 second advert might do better being able to be downloaded through a Smart Phone.

TV Advert Theories

Adverts need to be creative and memorable and every Creative Director should know about advertising theory, one way to understand how most people decide what to purchase is with a tool called Consumer Involvement Theory.

In order the begin producing an advertisement, the first step is to consider what the company wants the consumers primary reaction to be towards the advert. This is not needed for all adverts, particularly those companies that have products that are already well established but new company may choose to go back to basics.

There are considered to be three different primary reactions that could occur when watching an advertisement;

- To think, to understand and to maybe remember.

- To feel and to experience some sort of emotion.

- To take action and do something.

The goal of branding is to be able to get people thinking about the product or service the company is trying to promote, the ultimate aim of advertising however, is being able to influence the viewer into becoming a consumer of the company's product, in order to do this, the company must be able to gain viewers and establish a relationship between the product and the viewer, getting them to like the product and want it.

Direct Marketing and Direct Responses are more about the audience responding to a click of a website, or picking up a phone to place an order for the product, each of these ways means a product could be brought in minutes.

However, to advertise on the television, the advertiser must know how to evoke a reaction within a viewer, the viewer may not respond to the advert at all or they may feel something towards the advert, the advertiser must know how to be able to advertise its product to its target audience and if there is more than one, know how to advertise it to a wider audience.


Children's

To appeal to a younger audience, it is more likely to gain attention to the viewer with the use of colour, cartoons or even familiar characters that the younger viewer may recognise.

The advert is promoting a children's toy which features the character 'Hannah Montana' from the same titled show, the advert would appeal to young children who had watched the show and therefore recognise the character because of this a relationship has already been established between the product and the consumer. The advert also uses songs from the show which the child may also recognise and want the product.

Humor

Humorous adverts generally appeal more to an older audience, usually in these types of adverts the humour is subtle and usually reflects a real-life situation that the viewer could or may have found themselves in.

The 'John Smiths' advert uses what is considered to be a 'Typical British Man' who makes himself look foolish over the course of several different adverts. The advert is promoting a brand of Beer, which already alienates the younger audience since there is an age restriction.

The advert also uses a well-known comedian 'Peter Kay' as its leading man which immediately targets the comedians fanbase into paying attention to the advert when it airs.

Sex Appeal is also commonly used in adverts when selling a product, the most common products that use sex appeal in adverts are usually for products such as perfume or aftershave. This is can be used to appeal to the consumer - which are mostly aimed for women - because it can target the women with the idea that if this product is making one women feel attractive, then it can make them feel that way too. Perfume adverts also appeal to men for gift ideas as perfume is a common bought gift for women from men.

Forms and Conventions of Advertising

There are several conventions that adverts generally follow, these act as a guidline to ensure the advert is viewer-friendly.

Conventions;

- The advert manages to make a connection with the audience.

- To make a successful advert, the advert needs to be easy for the audience to recall it, it needs to be
   memorable.

- The advert must make sure all information is correct and easily understandable for the viewer,  the viewer must not be confused, this makes an unsuccessful advert if the viewer doesn't understand what is being sold.

- The advert must get the necessary information out as quickly as possible, whilst still making sense to the audience.


Types of Adverts;

Entertaining:The comparethemarket.com website is now ranked as the 4th most visited insurance website in the UK – up from 16th in January 2008; sales have more than doubled year on year as a result of the TV ‘meerkat campaign’.

As of August 2009, Aleksandr, a character featured in the meerkat campaign, had more than 700,000 Facebook fans and 22,000 followers on Twitter, while on a photo-sharing site called Flickr there is a photo gallery of Aleksandr's family, all this helps promotion of the insurance site, itself.

The character remains extremely popular and even a record company has expressed an interest in releasing a single featuring the character Aleksandr.

The meerkat campaign has been extrememly successful in its advertising, as it has continued over a span of several years, people will tune in to see the latest installment of the meerkats, the campaign has also has successfully launched merchandise for the website, promoting a free 'meerkat' with several to choose from, when you join the insurance site.

Following adverts is not a new thing, in the past there have been several 'story-like' advertising, where there is the same character in the advert, with each new advert there is a new 'storyline' following the character as well as the promotion of a product, popular adverts like these include;

Nescafe Coffee;

 BT;

Other types of media aside from continuous adverts featuring the characters have also come from the advertising, particularly the Meerkat campaign.

Since the first Meerkat advert aired, there has since been a number of other merchandise surrounding the meerkats including books; In 2010, a book titled "A Simples Life: The Life and Times of Aleksandr Orlov" was released in October. The book gained more pre-orders then any book that was released at that time, including Tony Blair's memoirs and also doubled in pre-orders then Danni Minogue and Cheryl Cole's autobiographies.

There have also been several downloads available since the launch of the website, including wallpapers, text alerts, ringtones etc. Following the iPhone application trend, there has also been an application that consists of meerkat background information and meerkat translations available in a download for the consumer.  Meertkat Downloads

The biggest piece of merchandise since the campaign started however was the plush toys of the characters featured in the adverts, with several types to choose from.

Sentimental;

A sentimental advert allows the audience to be more engaged into the advert, it entices them into viewing and also makes the advert very memorable if it emotionally touches the viewer.

An example of this advert is the Google Chrome 'Dear Sophie' advert, released in 2011 to promote an internet browser, the advert consists of a father writing emails to his daughter as she grows up, the advert uses a potential use of the product is promoting in the advert though chooses the most heart-wrenching possibility to touch viewers, particularly those with children themselves. The advert has recieved over four million viewers to date, the advert was also voted as one of the top ten adverts of 2011 by The Globe and Mail.

The Advert has since recieved a number of positive reviews, these comments are taken from the video uploaded to youtube.

Serious 'Hard-Hitting';

A serious 'hard-hitting- advert usually tends to be an advert promoting a charity of some kind, or even a type of illness, initiating awareness. The advert usually uses some form of statistics of footage that was designed to shock its audience, the more shocking and hurtful, the more likely the viewer is to give money to the organisation etc.

Television Advertising

A television advertisement is a type of media showed on television which is produced and paid for by an organization, these advertisements convey a message, the general use of a television advertisement is for the promotion of a product or service. Advertising revenue provides a significant portion of the funding for most privately owned television networks.

The majority of television advertisements today consist of brief advertising spots, ranging in length from a few seconds to several minutes (as well as program-length direct resonse adverts). Advertisements of this sort have been used to promote a wide variety of goods, services and ideas since the beginning of television.

United KingdomIn the UK, the British Broadcasting Corporation is funded by a licence fee and only features adverts that promote its own programming. On the other channels that allow other advertising besides their own has a specific amount of airtime allowed by the UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom for advertising. The overall average is 7 minutes per hour, with limits of 12 minutes for any particular clock hour, in the evening this changes to 8 minutes per hour between 6pm and 11pm.

With 42-minute American exports to Britain, such as Grey's Anatomy which are given a one hour slot, nearly a third of the slot is taken up by adverts or trailers for other programs, movies and products.

Live imported television programs such as WWE Raw show promotional material that is shown in place of U.S. advert breaks.

In 2008, Ofcom announced a Review of television advertising and teleshopping regulation, with a view to possibly changing their code, Rules on the Amount and Distribution of Advertising (RADA), which regulates the duration, frequency and restriction of adverts on television.

Advertising Energy Saving Lightbulbs [1]

FINAL IDEA

Our final idea, we decided on an advert again and this time our product was something entirely different to what we had previously discussed, we decided to instead of promoting a consumerism item that we would instead promote energy saving light bulbs and how important it is to cut down our carbon emissions and help the environment.

Our idea was to get hold of many energy-saving light bulbs and coloured plastic sheets to create different colours. We then thought we could flash these bulbs in time with the beat of chosen music, again different to anything we had previously discussed. We decided on using the opening beat from the song The Black Parade- My Chemical Romance. Below is the music video for this song.

Our connecting idea for this was to also feature facts and statistics explaining why it is important to swap our light bulbs for energy saving ones, hoping to get a point across. We thought about adding this last part to the end of the advert and we have considered a music change to go with it, as it will be a different feel to the beginning part of the advert.

Energy Saving Trust (UK)

IDEA 2 – Music Video

IDEA 2 – Music Video

Our group was really indecisive about whether to film an advert or a music video, we initially came up for ideas using both premises. Our idea for a music video was a complex process as we wanted to come up with something different yet neither of us really wanted to be in front of the camera, we decided to use self-shot clips and footage that could be found from others sources and create a montage video.

We planned to go for a sentimental and poignant feel to the music video, which then after a discussion of song choices which included ‘Kate Bush- This Woman’s Work’, ‘Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah’ and ‘Coldplay – Fix You’ We then decided to use the song ‘Mad World’ performed by Gary Jules.

We then discussed what type of footage we wanted to find and shoot ourselves to include in our music video, we brainstormed a list together, compiled with both footage we shoot ourselves and footage we would find through other sources, like YouTube. Our list was then separate into two sub-headings which helped us see what we needed to film more easily and how we would need to get the footage to use.

Self-Shot Footage Ideas

-          Balloon into the air

-          Weather; snow, rain

-          Cars

-          Reactions; crying

-          Splashes; puddle

-          Dog running, Cat appearing delightful

-          Passers by

-          People falling down; slipping on ice

-          Opening presents

-          People drinking; having a good time

-          Others hugging; signs of affection

-          People leaving

-          Flowers on the side of the road

-          Graveyard; flowers

(News) Footage-Found Ideas

-          Car Crash devastation

-          Terrorism; World Trade Centre; 7/7 Bombings

-          Norway attacks

-          Pride; Royal Wedding

-          Japan; Tsunami

-          Pollution; China

-          Chernobyl

-          IRA

Though our initial result was to obtain a moving and emotional feeling to the video, we also wanted to create a small controversial feeling to the video as well; we were going to create this through the use of clips of terrorism and natural disasters. 

IDEA 1 - Ice Cream

IDEA 1 – Product; Ice Cream

We came up with several ideas about what we could film for our final piece; we came up with ideas for both a music video and an advert.

Our advert idea spawned of many other ideas, linking with the same product, the first product we considered ‘promoting’ was Ice Cream.

Idea One; For the product; Ice Cream, our first idea was to have someone eating the ice cream whilst being distressed or extremely upset, classical music was to then slowly make an entrance and play as an overlay until the camera panned over the crying protagonist over to the ‘twist’ of the advert, when we realise that the classical music in fact coming from a dramatic orchestra that is placed in the corner of the living room, we hoped this would add a comedy effect which would hopefully make the advert unforgettable.

Idea Two; For the same product ‘Ice Cream’, our second idea for the product was to our setting in a church, we were also attempting to again, like our first initial idea to go for a comical advert as we thought about having someone in a confession box; however their confession was that they had eaten a ridiculous amount of ice cream and now felt terrible about it.

Idea Three; Our third idea was a ‘spin-off’ of the second idea, instead of our protagonist in a confession box, we instead decided to have him sitting in a pew, where a priest would approach him, which he would then confess his sin and burst into tears.

All three ideas, particularly the last one allowed us to be able to do a close up of our product to help us promote it the most – we were going to have the empty ice cream boxes on his lap and around him.

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to encourage or persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to continue or take some new action. Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through "Branding," which involves the repetition of an image or product name in an effort to associate certain qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers.

Adverts are paid for by sponsors and viewed via various traditional media; including mass media such as newspaper, magazines, television adverts, radio advertisement, outdoor advertising or direct mail; or new media such as websites and text messages. Internationally, the largest ("big four") advertising conglomerates are Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP.

Modern advertising developed with the rise of mass production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 2010, spending on advertising was estimated at more than $300 billion in the United States and $500 billion worldwide.

An famous TV advert for 'Compare The Market' which was now branded 'Campare The Meerkat' and has now expanded into a mini franchise, with collectable meerkats.

Virtually any medium can be used for advertising. Commercial advertising media can include wall paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers and rack cards, radio, cinema and television adverts, web banners, mobile telephone screens, shopping carts etc.

Television Advertising

The TV advertising is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format, as is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for advert airtime during popular TV events.

The majorities of television adverts feature a song or jingle that listeners soon relate to the product. Virtual advertisements may be inserted into regular television programming through computer graphics.

The 2011 iPad advert allowed the viewer to identify with the products capabilities whilst having the jingle stuck in their head, allowing them to constantly be thinking of Apples new product.

Radio Advertising

Radio advertisements are broadcast as radio waves to the air from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device. Airtime is purchased from a station or network in exchange for airing the adverts. While radio has the limitation of being restricted to sound, proponents of radio advertising often cite this as an advantage. Radio is an expanding medium that can be found not only on air, but also online.

Billboard Advertising

Billboards are large structures located in public places which display advertisements to passing pedestrians and motorists. Most often, they are located on main roads with a large amount of passing motor and pedestrian traffic; however, they can be placed in any location with large amounts of viewers, such as on mass transit vehicles and in stations, in shopping malls or office buildings, and in stadiums.

When Coca-Cola advertise their products, they makes sure that the advertising is the same across many forms. At christmas, every year, Coca-Cola use the Santa Claus advertising, which has always proved successful.

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

In today’s world, advertising promotes healthy competition as it informs and entertains. The ASA ensures that’s consumers can both enjoy and trust the adverts they see.

ASA builds trust from the public by enforcing ‘Advertising Codes’ written by the Committee of Advertising Practice; they also act swiftly when marketing communications break the rules.

The Advertising Standards Authority send clear signals about what is and what is not acceptable in advertising across a wide range of sectors, every week. As a result, the UK industry’s commitment to responsible advertising makes sure the ads, the public see are legal, decent, honest and truthful.

The UK marketing industry recognised the need for trust in advertising when it set up the advertising self-regulatory system for non-broadcast advertising in 1961. Since then, the UK’s system of self-regulation has helped to ensure advertising remains responsible: honest advertising helps to keep customers coming back.

Today, the UK advertising regulatory system is a mixture of self-regulation for non-broadcast advertising and co-regulation for broadcast advertising.

This means that the system is paid for by the industry, which also writes the rules, but those rules are independently enforced by the ASA.
The system is a sign of a considerable commitment by the advertising industry to uphold standards in their profession.

All parts of the advertising industry – advertisers, agencies and media – have come together to commit to being legal, decent, honest and truthful in their ads.