Making a complaint about an advert

Most of us have seen adverts on television, radio or in print media that we have found offensive or misleading. Maybe you have considered them racist, sexist, or the items advertised don’t do what they promise.

In order to handle complaints, and to avoid the imposition of legislation, the advertising industry set up an independent organisation, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), in 1962.

This self-regulatory body has been working hard ever since. Between 2007 and 2008 it received 24,192 complaints about a record 14,080 advertisements. Within this period 2,458 adverts were changed or withdrawn, and not even big companies could escape.

In July 2008 Orange fell foul of the organisation for running an advert in newspapers and magazines that claimed people could save money by switching from BT. The ASA ordered Orange to amend the advert. In September of the same year, Apple was censured for releasing a TV advert that the ASA said gave a misleading impression of the capabilities of the iPhone. The advert was pulled immediately.

Rules and regulations
The ASA regulates according to a code of practice (CoP) that has been drawn up by the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP). This is an industry body made up of advertisers, direct marketers, agencies and media owners.

The rules apply to adverts broadcast over radio or television, in cinemas, and printed in magazines and newspapers, posters, leaflets and brochures, direct mail, email and fax and text messages. Essentially, these rules state that adverts are not allowed to mislead consumers and require advertisers to have evidence to support any claims they make about their products or services. Adverts may not discriminate against a particular race, religion or sexuality and companies that make sale claims must have evidence that the item was previously sold at a higher price. If it receives a complaint, the ASA will also look at where the advert appeared and the audience it was targeted at.

Impartiality and the rules
The ASA is funded by the advertising industry, but to ensure impartiality it is funded and takes an optional and anonymous levy from advertisers. It charges 0.1 per cent of the money a company pays to a publisher for display advertising or a broadcaster for airtime and 0.2 per cent of the money paid to Royal Mail to distribute leaflets.

So the ASA does not know which advertisers have paid, these levies are collected by two bodies set up expressly for this purpose; the Broadcast Advertising Standards Board of Finance and the Advertising Standards Board of Finance.