Unit 20: LO? Legal & Ethical issues in advertising

 Q1: What is the role of OfComm and The Advertising Standards Agency in regulating advertising in the UK? The job of OfComm and ASA is to ensure advertisers in the UK are following the advertising codes written by the committee of advertising practice.

 

Q2: What are the areas of advertising  that are regulated by the ASA? 

Print Publishing,

TV and radio adverts,

Billboards,

Posters/Brochers,

Sometimes online adverts such as social media adverts,

Q3: How does the role of the ASA and OfComm differ in how they monitor advertising? 

OfComm are in charge of changing the advertising code where are ASA deal with more day to day advertising regulation. 

 

Task: 

Research 2 adverts that have been withdrawn by the ASA in the last 3 years, on your blog explain what the advert was for, how it broke the rules and why it was removed from the media. 

https://youtu.be/Yyqsj5EGu1A 

This is an advert made by Philadelphia cream cheese and it shows two dads who leave their babies on the food delivery system because they are distracted by the cream cheese bagels. It was banned because it was reported to cater to the stereotype that men are bad parents and so it was removed from circulation. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyaHzY-8AD4

This is an advert made by Volkswagen that shows men doing "extreme" things such as camping on a cliff face and being in a spaceship but the woman is seen making sandwiches and doing the laundry. It was banned for using the stereotype that women should be doing the housework so it was removed.

Ethical Issues 

An ethical issue is one which may not break regulation but may still cause offence to the audience(s) for another reason (use of certain body shapes, use of children etc. ) or may be morally wrong in its approach to a topic but stays inside ASA guidelines.   

 

Task: 

Choose one advert that you feel may have an ethical problem, explain why you feel an ethical issue is present and what effect that may have on the target audience(s). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zh0GRhfHuA

This is an advert made by the dating site, match.com. It shows two couples, one lesbian, one heterosexual. It was heavily complained about for being "too sexually explicit" for children to see but it wasn't banned. Also Evangelical Christians got annoyed because it showed a gay couple, this shows that an advert can "cause offensive" despite not being morally wrong and therefore not be banned.

 

Task: 

Explain what YOU will need to consider in terms of legal issues and ethical problems when creating your advertising campaign. How you will avoid breaking any laws and keep the production ethically sound.  

I will need to research legal issues surrounding adverts in general and also surrounding the topic that I create my advert about so that I do not break any copyright or similar laws. Furthermore, I will need to consider ethical issues, for example religious issues. This will be much more relevant for some topics that others.

Starter:

Legal - Anything governed by law

Ethical - Issues not covered by law which may raise strong feelings or moral questions in the audience.