LED

LED is another type of lightbulb that could be used to help conserve energy. LED stands for 'light emitting diode'. LED's are used as indicator lamps in several devices and are also used for other types of lighting.

LED's were introduced in 1962 , when they were first introduced LED's only emitted red light which was a low intensity but as society has evolved, LED's have now modernised and are available with very high brightnesses.

There are many advantages to using a LED instead of a incandescent lamp, the main advantage is that LED's have a much lower energy consumption, they are also have a longer life-span compared to IL's and come in a smaller size then IL's.

However, LED's that are powerful enough to light a room can be expensive and requre a precise current and heat management than CFL's output. 

Compact Fluorescent Lamp

There are several names the Compact Fluorescent Lamp is known as, some of these include; Compact Fluorescent Light, Energy Saving Light and Compact Fluorescent Tube, this kind of lamp is designed to replace a Incandescent Lamp.

CFL's use less power than the general Incandsecent Lamps and also are known to have anywhere from eight times to fifteen times longer life span then IL's.

CFL's are known to be more expensive to buy then IL's but it has been researched that CFL's can save over five times the amount that has been paid for in electricity costs of the CFL's lifespan. CFL's do contain mercury which makes the lamps more complicated to dispose of, in some countries, recycling schemes have been put into place to dispose of CFL's for the consumer.

Energy Efficient;

50-70% of the total amount of lights sold are incandescent lamps, due to their high efficiency, CFL's use only a quarter to one third of the power that is equivalent in incadescendent lamps.
Replacing all inefficient lighting could save up to 409 terrawat hours (TWh)  a year which counts for 2.5% of the world's electricity consumption. It is estimated, that if all the incadescent lights were replaced by CFL's in America then 80 TWh would be saved yearly.

Since CFL's use far less energy then Icandescent Lamps do, replacing all IL's would result in less CO2 being released into the atmosphere, replacing these with CFL's would globally would result in a 230 million tones CO2 reduction.

This chart shows the cost of electricity usage of several different types of lightbulbs. The chart shows clearly that Incandescent cost far more than any other type.

Cost;

When Incandescent Lamps are replaced in commercial building, CFL's can be very cost-effective, when they are used to replace IL's. In 2006 in the US, it was found that when replacing each 75 W Incandescent Lamp with a CFl resulted in a yearly save of $22 of energy consumption. When using CFL's, savings are greater and payback periods are shorter.

So Why Should We Use Energy Saving Lightbulbs?

Energy Saving Lightbulbs biggest selling point is the fact that they are cheaper and last longer. Another selling point is, energy saving lightbulbs are much more friendly to the the environment. The biggest waste from regular lightbulbs is carbon dioxide, which in turn, is the biggest contributing factor to global warming. Nearly 25% of the UK's carbon emissions come from domestic household products.

By using Energy Saving Lightbulbs, we can continue to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere, resulting in a reduction of global warming.

Visit ecofriendlylightbulbs.co.uk for more information.

Energy Conservation

We chose for our product to advertise to be Energy Saving Lightbulbs, because of this we needed to do some energy into the importance of saving energy, especially in this day and age where the energy we are using is causing damage to the Earth.

As society continues to change and it improve its technology, the amount of electricity generated is a huge amount which requires more energy to be used. The power used to generate technology products is usually generated in Power Plants that convert different kinds of energy into electricity.

Energy conservation attempts to reduce the amount of energy that is consumed. Conservation can be achieved by increasing the efficient use of energy, when there is reduced energy consumption, this reduces the energy consumption from other energy sources.

The overall result of energy conservation could be an increase of financial capital, environmental quality, national security, personal security and human comfort. Organisations and Individuals can choose to conserve energy to reduce energy costs and increase economic security, whilst Industrical and Commercial users of energy, could increase efficiency of energy to increase profit.

Energy conservation has been recieving more attention as the years progress in the UK, this is due to the Government's commitment to reducing carbon emissions, the project 'Energy Gap' in UK electricity generation and the reliance the country has on imports that meet energy needs, nationally. The highest problems for amounts of energy being consumed comes from domestic housing and road transport.

Controversial and Banned Adverts

Every year, the UK sees millions of adverts promoting a product, a service, a charity or even trying to gain awareness for a campaign, the vast majority of adverts that are aired on television comply with the ASA's rules.

In 2010, the ASA recieved nearly 29,000 complaints about adverts that were seen by consumers. The ASA assessed the concerns that were made about these adverts and were investigated, resulting in nearly 2,400 adverts were requested to either be changed or were withdrawn from viewing.

In order to have a successful advert, its important that our advert complies with the rules as well, when planning our advert we had to make sure that there was no possibility of a rule being breached.


Barnardo's Campaigns

Barnardo's campaigns are notouriously known for their controversial images they use for their campaigns. Over the years, they have used images such as a young baby with a cockcroach in its mouth and bruises shown on abuse victims.

The image of a young baby with a cockcroach in its mouth was launched in 2003 and recieved more complaints than any other advert that was shown that year, recieving 466 complaints.
The advert was upheld to which Barnardo's said they were 'disappointed' by this decision as their ultimate goal was to spread awareness for child poverty.

Barnardo's is infamous with several images used to create awareness for poverty, including one with another baby with a syringe in its mouth, Barnardo's claimed that the adverts "showed the reality of poverty and its long term effects." Barnard's refused to apologise for the advertisement, arguing that the issue of child poverty was often ignored by the media.


Other Billboard advertisements have also been banned because they have caused some kind of offense to the public.

An advertisement of Tony Blair, advertising ID Cards was released in 2006, was the most complained about advert in that year and was banned because "the barcode on Tony Blair's upper lip made him resemble Hitler, which was offensive."

An advertisement promoting the TV show 'Six Feet Under' caused some controversy as viewers found it to be "offensive, shocking and likely to cause undue distress", the advert was made banned in the UK.

 

This advertisment was released to advertise the 'Quit Smoking' campaign. The advertisement featured two cigarettes to resemble the Twin Towers, with the tagline "No More Killing" to represent the 9/11 attacks. The advertisement was rejected in China for being seen as "inappropriate."

The advert caused offense to some viewers and the advertisement was then banned.

In 2010, the Irn Bru drink released an advertisment to promote their drink, the advert featured animated animals and had a Pied Piper theme to the advert by having the animals follow wherever the protagonist went. However, the advert turns from a happy, bright theme quickly to a dark, disturbing theme when the animals are led to a butcher shop.

The advert had already recieved a restriction given by the ASA, which meant the advert was not allowed to be shown around programmes that were targeted for children, however the advert still recieved a number of complaints arguing that the content was "offensive, irresponsible and distressing to children." The ASA felt its previous restriction to the advert was acceptable and the advert was not banned.

An advertisement advertising a cleaning product caused some offence to its viewers because of its use of "gender stereotypes", its tagline is "So easy a man could do it." Complaints were made against the advert but the ASA disagreed and saw the advert as "light-hearted" and "comical" and was unlikely to cause widespread offence.

The Restriction of Adverts

In January 2, 1971, advertisements that featured cigarettes in them were banned from American TV, alcohol products use is allowed in adverts however there is not allowed to be any consumption of alcohol in any advertisement.

On 1 April, 2007 restrictions on when adverts featuring foods high in fat, sugar and salt would be shown on TV.

The idea behind this was to reduce the amount of exposure children had against products that were high in fat, sugar and salt, the reason for this was to try and improve children’s diets and prevent rising levels of obesity.

Before the restriction was made, 80% of food advertising was spent promoting foods appealing to children like sweets, soft drinks and cereals.

Figures for obesity showed that it had tripled in the last twenty years, one third of all children aged 2-15 were considered obese which is a contributing factor to heart disease, cancer and strokes.

History of Regulation

Protecting Consumers and Testing Claims

In 1961, the Advertising Association decided that it was very important that advertisements were welcomed and trusted by consumers.

Because of this, groups such as agencies, media and advertisers decided to come together to form the Committee of Advertising Practice also known as CAP and released the first edition of the British Code of Advertising Practice.

In 1962, CAP established the ASA as the independent adjudicator under the new code created. This was set up to supervise the self-regulating system to protect the public.


Introduction of the Levy

In 1973 the Minister for Consumer Protection, Shirley Williams, criticized the system for not being well known enough by the public. As a response to this, the Advertising Standards Board of Finance (ASBOF)  was set up in 1974 to provide sufficient and secure financial funding through a levy of 0.1% on advertising space costs.

The ASA is not responsible for collecting the levy itself,  the levy can also provide enough funding for the ASA to promote itself to the public.

Legal Back Stop

In 1988,  the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations was introduced and provided the ASA with the legal backing from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). These regulations enabled the ASA to refer advertisers who continued to mislead claims and refused to co-operate with the self regulatory system, to the OFT for legal action.

The ASA still has the ability to refer advertisers to OFT for unfair or misleading advertisements. However, today they are referred under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008, which replaced the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations 1988.

Referral to the OFT is considered to be a last resort and is only used rarely: the majority of advertisers work within the system.

Becoming the One Stop Shop

After forty years of successful self regulation of non-broadcast adverts, in 2004 the ASA and CAP system assumed responsibility for TV and radio adverts.

The co-regulatory agreement created for the first time in the UK a single regulator for advertising – a one-stop shop for advertising complaints.
To create the one-stop shop, institutions similar to the ASA and CAP were established. The Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice were created to write and maintain the Broadcast Advertising Codes.

The Broadcast Advertising Standards Board of Finance (BASBOF) were established to collect the 0.1% levy on broadcast advertising space costs and an ASA (Broadcast) was launched to administer the Codes.

The system runs as a single advertising regulator. This is particularly important for members of the public who want a complaints system that’s easy to navigate.

The ASA recieved 100 complaints in its first year of operation, now it receives around 26,000 complaints a year. This is mainly due to the fact that the one-stop shop ASA is now well known and it has been made easier to complain.

Advertising Under Control

45 years later, the majoirty of advertising in the UK complies with the Codes. The ASA compliance surveys reveal that more than 97% of adverts are in line with the Advertising Codes.

The vast majority of TV and radio adverts are pre-cleared before they go on air. Free help and guidance is offered to non-broadcast advertisers publishing the millions of non-broadcast adverts in the UK each year, in the form of the Copy Advice team who offer free, independent and expert advice on how to avoid failing foul of the rules.

Because the industry is has to make self-regulation effective, advertisements that break the Codes can be withdrawn without the need to resort to legal action. A range of sanctions can be given as punishment. For example, advertisers who continue to flout the rules can be denied access to advertising media space.

Today’s self-regulatory system has come a long way since 1962, winning the confidence of consumers, industry and government along the way.

What’s next for advertising Self Regulation?

Over the years, the advertising self-regulatory system has responded to changes in society and media. The system is continuing to prevent any adverts that mislead, harm or offend. A major challenge for the system is to maintain standards in fast-developing new media as effectively as in established media.


Video on-demand

In late 2009, following the UK government’s decision that new rules relating to video-on-demand (VOD) services should be delivered under a co-regulatory framework.

The ASA entered into a co-regulatory partnership with Ofcom to regulate advertisements with VOD services. Because of the rise of VOD consumers, they are able to watch programmes at a time of their own choosing, it was necessary that these new services also comply with the same rules that are given to programming on TV.

In 210 the first complaint made against adverts accompanying VOD was upheld by the ASA, because the advert had not been shown during a suitable programme.

As with broadcast advertising, broadcasters who continually air adverts that break the Codes can be referred to Ofcom, which has the power to fine them or even take away their license.

Digital Media

In 1995 the self-regulation of the internet began as the ASA’s responsibility was extended to cover advertisements in ‘non-broadcast electronic media’.

Because of the growth in online content and usage, in 2007 the Internet became the second most complained about medium behind television - it had approximately 3,000 complaints per year - and has remained that number of complaints ever since.
However, nearly two-thirds of these complaints fell outside of the ASA’s responsibility as they related to claims made on companies’ own websites.

To address the regulatory gap and to broaden the existing protections for consumers and children online, it was recommended that the ASA extend its responsibility in digital media to cover marketing communications on companies’ own websites.

In 2010, the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), responded to the request of the extension by announcing that the ASA’s online responsibility was to cover advertisers own marketing communications on their own websites and in other non-paid-for space under their control, such as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Journalistic and editorial content and material related to causes and ideas - except those that are direct solicitations of donations for fund-raising - are excluded from the ASA's responsibility.

The extended responsibility was put into practice in March 2011, following a six month period of time to allow the ASA and CAP to conduct training work to raise awareness and educate business on the requirements of the CAP Code.

Today, over 30 million press adverts alone are published in the UK each year. Consumers are enthusiastic recipients of advertising, who enjoy its entertainment value and make use of the information it provides.

The flexibility of the system to respond to changes in society and technology means self and co-regulation continues to be the most effective way to secure high standards in advertising – both for business and consumers.

All information taken and edited from the ASA's Official Website.

Submitting a Compaint to the ASA

To show the process of what happens when a complaint is made to the ASA, I decided to make my own complaint to the ASA about an advert I had seen.

To begin submittign a complaint, the website takes you to a section of the site that offers the reader several options, including the option to see if the advert has already been complained about and also offers a link to sibmit a complaint.

Submitting a complaint is done in five steps, the first step asks the viewer who they are in society, the one I have selected is "Complaining as a member of public."

Step 2, then requires you to fill out your personal details, this is done for contact in case some needs to be made to the viewer.

Step 3 asks the viewer what type of advertisement it is, this shows that the ASA does not just deal with complaints about advertising on television but also other types.

Step 4 asks a series of questions regarding the advert that is being complained about, these questions include 'What is the product?', 'Where did you see/hear about this?' etc.

The last step towards submitting a complaint requires a description of what the complaint about the advertisement is. Here, the viewer must detail why they are offended or think the advert is inapropriate of some sort.

This is the last shot shown once the complaint has been submitted, it details that a confirmation email will be recieved within a few working days, I have recieved this email which is shown below.