Regulation of Advertisement

"The ASA is the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all media, including
marketing on websites. We work to ensure ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful by applying the Advertising Codes."

Advertisement is an important part of every day life. It informs, entertains and promotes health competition. It is important for these adverts to be regulated for the benefit of the consumer and company. Without this regulation advertsisements may mislead, offend or harm the viewer therefore contradicting the purpose of advertisement.

The ASA regulates the following types of advertisement:

• Magazine and newspaper advertisements 
• Radio and TV commercials (not programmes or programme sponsorship) 
• Television Shopping Channels 
• Posters on legitimate poster sites (not fly posters) 
• Leaflets and brochures 
• Cinema commercials 
• Direct mail (advertising sent through the post and addressed to you personally) 
• Door drops and circulars (advertising posted through the letter box without your name on) 
• Advertisements on the Internet, including banner and display ads and paid-for (sponsored) search 
• Marketing communications on companies’ own websites and in other, non-paid-for space under their own control  
• Commercial e-mail and SMS text message ads 
• Ads on CD ROMs, DVD and video, and faxes
• We regulate sales promotions, such as special offers, prize draws and competitions wherever they appear.

On 1st March 2011 the ASA was extended significantly to deliver more comprehensive consumer protection online.

Our advertisement will have to meet the standards set by the advertising codes. If advertisements don't meet the required standards it is likely that consumers can complain through the ASA's website. Once a complaint is recieved the ASA must investigate and if they find the advert in breach of any rules they can ask for the advert to be removed. This is costly for the company and is therefore important that an advert adheres to these rules to save uneccessary costs.

As we are planning to make a short sponsorship for a programme featuring our product it is important to understand the regulation behind this. Ofcom are responsible for the regulation of these films. The codes for which need to be followed can be found here. Ofcom also regulate product placement, where companies can pay for their product to feature in a particular programme. The codes for this would also need to be considered if we were to do this.