ASA Research

Intro:

1. ASA stands for Advertising Standards Authority

2. The ASA makes sure ads across UK media stick to the advertising rules (the Advertising Codes).
3. The key principles of the advertising codes are:
 Compliance
 Recognition of marketing communications
 Misleading advertising
 Harm and offence
 Children
 Privacy
 Political advertisements
 Promotional marketing
 Distance selling
 Use of data for marketing
 Environmental claims
 Medicines, medical devices, health-related products and beauty products
 Weight control and slimming
 Financial products
 Food, food supplements and associated health or nutrition claims
 Gambling
 Lotteries
 Alcohol
 Motoring
 Employment, homework, schemes and business opportunities
 Tobacco, rolling papers and filters
 Electronic cigarettes

4. The ASA protects children by enforcing advertising codes, in particular, in the rules of harm
5.1.2. The ASA forbids children being shown in hazardous situations or behaving dangerously
except to promote safety. Furthermore, children must not be shown unattended in street
scenes unless they are old enough to take responsibility for their own safety, which is 17 and
over. In my case, I must ensure that my knife crime print advertisement abides by Harm and
Offence advertising code. My marketing communications will not cause fear or distress without
justifiable reason; if it can be justified, the fear and distress should not be excessive. Marketers
must not use a shocking claim or image merely to attract attention. My print advertisement is
focused on knife crime; therefore, I have a justifiable reason if my advertisement causes fear or
distress to the audience, but it will not be excessive but tolerable. Moreover, I will handle
references to anyone who is dead with particular care to avoid causing offence or distress to the
audience.
Case study:

 Company: Crimestoppers Trust

 Date of the complaints: 07 July 2021
 NO. of complaints: 2

Description: The ad featured a woman who stated, “They told me Christopher had been murdered-
stabbed in the back. So as soon as they left, the first person we called was Christopher. It’s almost like
being sick with emotion, and you think ‘I’ve got to stay strong, I’ve got to stay strong’. The phone just
kept on ringing, ringing, ringing. You're going ‘c’mon Chris, answer the phone, you know, keep trying,
keep trying, he’ll answer’. And he didn’t answer. So, I rang him again. Put the phone down, ring again.
We tried maybe nine, ten times. And slowly you come to the realisation, that it’s not a mistake, and it is
the real thing, and he’s never going to call back”.

Another voice then stated, “Calling with knife crime information may feel hard- but there are harder
calls”. After providing information about how to contact the CrimeStoppers service, the second voice
concluded, “Hard calls, save lives”.

The ASA for this radio advertisement received a complaint, it challenged whether the ad was likely to
cause distress.

No further action was necessary, and it was not upheld by the ASA. The ASA noted that the ad
portrayed grief following knife crime-related bereavement and considered that was an emotive subject.
In addition, ASA considered that the ad concerned a subject matter that some viewers might find
upsetting, particularly those who had been, or knew someone, affected by knife crime. They also
considered that the speaker using repetition added to the raw effect. However, they considered that the
emotional nature of the appeal was proportional to the content of the ad and the seriousness of the
issue being discussed; they considered its tone to be appropriate to its message. They therefore
concluded that the ad had were not likely to cause undue distress. On that point, the ASA investigated
the ad under the BCAP Code rules 4.10 (Harm and Offence) but did not it in the breach.