Taste and decency - finding a balance

To decide what causes offence is no easy task for the ASA Council.  What causes offence to one person might be humorous to someone else.  An otherwise shocking image might be seen as worthy if it is raising awareness of a charity that has to deal with shocking social problems.  What may be acceptable in a magazine targeted at young men or women or during an adult film late at night may not be suitable on a poster outside a school or religious building.  Many factors come into play and the ASA Council takes this into account.

The advertising codes all contain rules on decency and offence.  Click the links below to read them:

TV codes – rules on harm and offence

Radio codes – harm and taste and decency

Non-broadcast codes – rules on serious or widespread offence

Research

We conduct research to help determine what people find offensive in advertisements.

The latest two reports are:

Serious offence in Advertising – Summary Research Report

Delete Expletives – A Report on people’s views on bad language in advertising.

The Issues section of the ASA website has information on Taste and Decency and the Portrayal of Women and Men in advertising.  Each section lists recent Adjudications, relevant Code Clauses, news stories, Research Reports and Background Briefings.