Advertising Responsibilities

1. What responsibilities should be considered when advertising to the public?

When creating an advertisement to be promoted in a public area many aspects of it being suitable and appropriate should be considered.  Whether it is presented in text or images, certain subjects which may be included in an advertisement may be copy written or offensive hence the Advertising Standards Authority ‘ensure that consumers do not just enjoy the ads they see, but they can trust them too.’ Certain subject areas may include the following:

·         Drinking alcohol

·         Drug taking

·         Nudity

·         Smoking/cigarettes

·         Violence

·         Animal cruelty

·         Death & injury

·         Criminal acts

·         People doing dangerous things

·         Advertisers making untrue claims

·         Sexual content

2.   How did this impact on your promotional campaign for the show?

Although the poster I created for the production did not need to include any of the aspects stated above I still had to take in to account that any other aspect would not cause any offence or similar matter. During the process of creating design ideas the advertising code of its suitability enabled me to encounter obstacles as my first intention was to base the poster on a character from the show. My concern was that no actor wanted the poster to be based upon them. Even if I did find someone I would have to make sure they are not positioned or dressed in an inappropriate manner. Due to the fact that there were many aspects which could have a negative impact on the poster I decided to base my poster on something else.

The ASA are based in the UK, they are are an independent watchdog that prevent adverts which may cause and oblige to be false, illegal and offense. Marketing communications they work and deal with include the following: Print and press ads, posters, television commercials, radio ads, internet ads, banner and display ads and paid-for search) marketing communications on companies' own websites and in other, non-paid-for space under their own control, e-mail and text messages, direct mail, competitions, special offers, sales promotions, cinema commercials, teleshopping and more. By researching about the ASA I have enabled myself to gather key information that make the advertising standards authority unique and so powerful.

·         The ASA include of some of the world’s most strictest codes

·         An impressive 99.7% usually abide with the ASA rules

·         The ASA has a huge recognition for taking responsibility for regulating adverts

·         For nearly 50 years the ASA have control of non-broadcast adverts

·         The chairman of ASA is led by Lord Smith of Finsbury and is made both, broadcast and non-broadcast panels

·         They are a ‘customer focused organization’

·         The ASA work to the best of their ability and look at ad in perspective of the audience

The ASA interact with many other regulators who work under taking responsibility in regulations as some companies work broader in different sectors. The companies they have joined up with are the following:

Office of Fair TradingOfcomGambling Commission Financial Services Authority Food Standards Agency Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory AgencyPhonepayPlus The Portman GroupTrading Standards

How important is regulation in media? Why?

If the media did not consist of regulations one could only imagine how corrupt the industry would become due to complaints. Having regulations diverse the right and wrong, the appropriate and the offensive. It is important that the regulations are considered a huge amount and those codes are met because by marketing and publishing wrong and false facts or images is the first step to destroying what we may in general, due to culture and religion, keep to and maintain our moral thinking. As important it is for businesses to market themselves, their services, events or any other subject which may need to be advertised in order to be successful, it is also important not to disrespect and ignore the codes that two very important committees in the advertising industry have written: the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP). Overall this is because viewers, including young children, who observe an advert should not have to deal with a view they may see every day of their life which includes something being indecent, dishonest or disrespectful.