One-stop shop open for business

24 October 2004

Any confusion about where consumers should lodge concerns about advertising that they find offensive or misleading should end today with the launch of the Advertising Standards Authority’s one-stop shop for advertising complaints.  In the biggest shake-up of advertising regulation for over 40 years, the ASA will now, for the first time, take complaints about broadcast advertising.

This means that as well as handling complaints about non-broadcast advertising - such as newspaper and magazine advertisements, posters, direct mail, sales promotions and  “paid for” internet ads – the ASA will also now be responsible for regulating the content of TV and radio commercials.

ASA Director General Christopher Graham said that it would now be much easier for members of the public to make complaints: “More than 5,000 people have approached the ASA already this year wanting to object to a TV or radio commercial.  Up until now we’ve had to turn them away.  Today’s new start helps straighten out the regulatory maze and that’s good news for consumers and for advertisers, too.”  In the past broadcast advertising was split between the Independent Television Commission and the Radio Authority.  More recently, Ofcom has been the statutory regulator for broadcast advertising complaints.

The changes are a decision by Ofcom that day-to-day responsibility for upholding standards in broadcast advertising should be contracted out to the ASA. However, Ofcom will retain overall responsibility for broadcast advertising regulation and the ASA will have to report back to the regulator periodically on the effectiveness of the new system.

Consumers can make complaints online, by post or by phone but should note that the ASA has now moved into new premises with new contact details, supplied below.

The new complaints system has been designed to be easy for consumers to access. Behind the scenes however, the Authority will operate two systems that will work alongside each other; one for dealing with non-broadcast advertising complaints and the other for complaints about broadcast advertising.

The reason that the two systems are kept separate is that broadcast and non-broadcast advertising have different Codes and  different legal backstops: non-broadcast misleading advertisers will continue to be dealt with by the Office of Fair Trading while broadcasters who don’t adhere to ASA rulings will be referred to Ofcom.

The advertising industry has set up a new body called the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP), which is tasked with setting, reviewing and revising the broadcast advertising codes.  BCAP will seek advice from another newly formed body, The Advertising Advisory Committee (AAC). This latter committee is made up of an independent group of lay people who will represent the consumer’s voice to BCAP. Any changes to the broadcast codes will need approval from Ofcom.

Television and radio advertisements will still have to be pre-cleared by the Broadcast Audience Clearance Centre (BACC) and the Radio Audience Clearance Centre (RACC), as they always have been. Ofcom’s remit does not extend to the CAP Code so there will be no changes to the way in which CAP (the advertising industry arm of the non-broadcast advertising regulatory system) functions.

To cope with its enlarged brief, the ASA has moved to new offices on High Holborn in London.

The Advertising Standards Authority

Mid City Place

71 High Holborn

London

WC1V 6QT

Telephone: 020 7492 2222

Fax: 020 7242 3696

Textphone: 020 7242 8159