Advertising Standards Authority

Advertising Standards Authority

Task 6

1.) ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) is the UK's self-governing regulator of advertising covering all media. The ASA apply the Advertising Codes, that are written by the Committees of Advertising Practice. Their purpose is to act on complaints and to make sure the adverts that are on television are on a high standard, making sure there are no inappropriate adverts. They tackle down harmful, misleading or offensive adverts.

2.) The steps to complain about a TV advert that has affected you in any way is to first check if the complaint you're about to file, has already been covered. If by any chance the same complaint has been covered, you should then complete their online complaint forms they have on their website. You can also write or telephone them, notifying them about the potential inappropriate advert. Secondly, once you have filled out the forms, they will give you a reference number that will be carried up later with the person you will have to contact. Lastly, ASA will NOT expose your name or personal details to the advertisers.

3.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzcRSr6PW_o - Controversial Advert 

4.) The following advert 'The F Word: Famine is the Real Obscenity' shows a collection of celebrities saying the word 'Famine'. Furthermore, throughout the video the celebrities look like they're saying the obscene 'F' word towards the camera. However, when they're about to say the word, their mouths are blanked and their mouths go on mute. At the end of the video, one of the celebrities say "Lets put a f......... end to famine." The whole idea of the advert is to get people to help focus the world's attention on the famine and food crisis in the Horn of Africa.

5.) Why has this advert been banned? The reason why this particular advert has been removed is because the message they're trying to send is very misleading towards the audience. Previously I stated that one of the celebrities says "Let's put a f......... end to famine". This clearly shows that the advertisers intentionally input that obscene word, even though they ironically blanked the word out. The audience watching this could have been young children, making this even more of a reason to be banned. Last but not least, the body language. Throughout the advert, their body language seems to be aggressive and intimidating. This could make the audience feel threaten or scared of the approach they have portrayed throughout the video. It feels like the advert were trying to make the audience participate in the social awareness by force. This advert has not been professionally thought out, therefore they have breached the political advertising rules.

6.) The regulators were absolutely right to banned this advert. Clearly the message in this advert was very misleading towards the audience. Also, not only it was misleading, but very offensive to many people that viewed the advert. The advertisers that produced this advert didn't think of the young children that could have been watching this, this was very inconsiderate of them. The regulators aim is to take down "Misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements" and this advert obviously contained two of the main problems. 

• The message that was sent towards the audience was very offensive and misleading. 
• The advertisers were inconsiderate of the other age group that could be watching.
• Aggressive and intimidating vibe throughout the video.
• Felt like the advert was too forced.

Personal Opinion - This advert was not appropriate for anyone watching, making this advert a fail. Using the celebrity endorsement technique was very clever, however they used them in all the wrong reasons. I believe this campaign advert could have been a huge success if they didn't use the misleading and offensive approach.