LO1, Part C, Regulations

ASA (Advertising Standards Authority)are responsible for the regulations that advertisement
must follow when creating the content of the advert, sales promotions and direct marketing
within the United Kingdom. The ASA make sure advertising is kept to a high standard by
administering the advertising codes. The ASA are important because if advertisers didnt have
any rules to follow when making an advert, it may be shown to the public and some may find the
advert to be rude, racist and not suitable to be shown on telly but because as they have no rules
and regulations you cant get the advert banned from being shown. I think advertising needs to
be regulated because there needs to be set rules in what advertisers can and cant put in their
adverts so they dont offend the general public, who will be seeing their advert, as its also of
making sure that an advert doesnt need to be continually banned from being shown on tv until it
is suitable, so it helps with the company to show of their product when they planned rather than
them making an advert but it isnt allowed to be shown.
Ofcom;
Ofcom are the communications regulators in the United Kingdom, they regulate the TV, radio
and video-on-demand sectors, fixed-line telecoms, mobiles and postal services, also the
airwaves over that wireless devices operate. Ofcom check the adverts to guarantee that citizens
in the United Kingdom get the best from their communication services and they protect us from
scams and sharp practice, while making sure that every advert competes to be the best and
thrive. They run under a number of Acts of Parliament, particularly the Communications Act of
2003,the act came into force on July 25th that superseded the Telecommunications act 1984.
Ofcom introduced legal recognition of community radio and for full time community radio
services through the UK. As well as making it illegal to use other people's WI-FI broadband
connections without the owner's permission1, this means that Ofcom must act to the powers and
duties that are set by Parliament in legislation. Ofcom is funded by fees from industry of
regulating what gets broadcasted on our television and from the communications networks,
while also receiving a grant-in-aid from the Government. Ofcom protect people from being
treated unfairly within television and radio programmes from having their privacy invaded, they
make sure that citizens watching their television or listening to the radio arent offended from
harmful or offensive material heard/seen and make sure that our television and radio
programmes provided are to the highest quality, while appealing to the range of different tastes
and interests that the public have. Ofcom however dont regulate and see to the complaints that
are about a BBC programme, the BBC TV licence fee, disputes between you and the telecom
provider you are with or the content of television and radio adverts.2 Ofcom is funded by the
fees that industry pays for regulating broadcasting and communication networks and a grant aid
that is supplied from the government.
The difference between Ofcom and ASA is that Ofcom work under an act given out from
parliament to which they must abide by to ensure that each regulator is following the rules from
the ASA to ensure that citizens are watching adverts that arent offensive or discriminating, the
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Act_2003
2 https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/what-is-ofcom

ASA are the people you can get in touch with if you want to complain about an advert, they look
into an advert for the public to see if it does or doesn't follow the rules set out to advertisers and
they decide whether or not an advert should be banned from being show to the public. The ASA
dont run under parliament as the company works with CAP to ensure all adverts being shown
are following the guidelines given to all advertisers.