ASA more effective as regulatory role expands - annual report 2004
24 April 2005
The Advertising Standards Authority’s 2004 Annual Report, published 26 April 2005, reveals a record 1,835 non-broadcast advertisements changed or withdrawn as a result of ASA action. The Report also reflects the changes to the ASA’s role as it took over responsibility for broadcast advertising from Ofcom on 1 November 2004.
Statistical review
Non-broadcast complaints to the ASA fell in 2004 to 12,711, a decline of 10.9% compared to 2003 (a record year). The number of advertisements complained about - 10,062 - also fell by 6.2% year on year.
827 non-broadcast ads were subject to a formal investigation during the year and 77% of those received an upheld adjudication. Cases resolved informally - where advertisers agree to withdraw or amend advertisements without a formal investigation - increased to 860, overtaking the number of formally investigated cases for the first time. Whilst broadcast advertising came under Ofcom’s remit for most of 2004, the ASA received 1,797 complaints about TV and radio advertising from 1 November until the end of the year.
Most complained about ads
Two ‘Top 10’ lists of the most complained about advertisements are included in the Report: for the first time the ASA has included a list of most complained about broadcast advertisements (including ads judged by Ofcom in the first ten months of the year). The 1,092 complaints about the non-broadcast Top 10 represent 8.5% of the total non-broadcast complaints the ASA received all year.
Religion is a dominant theme, with three of the top four campaigns across both media provoking complaints on the grounds of religious offence. A press and poster campaign for the TV series ‘Shameless’ on Channel 4 attracted 264 complaints, making it the most complained about non-broadcast ad of 2004. The ASA Council decided that the poster did not breach the Code and that a formal investigation was not justified. Another poster, by Schering Health Care Ltd for a morning after pill, ranked second, with 182 complaints and an ‘upheld’ verdict. A TV ad for Mr Kipling Mince Pies resulted in 806 complaints, which were upheld by Ofcom, making it the second most complained about broadcast ad. The teleshopping channel Auctionworld received the most complaints, with 1,360 consumers contacting the ASA and Ofcom during 2004.
Cause of complaints
The ASA received 2,841 complaints about taste and decency for non-broadcast advertising, down by nearly a quarter compared with 2003. Complaints about truthfulness also fell, but only by 8% to 2,472. The proportion of industry complaints about non-broadcast ads rose for the first time in two years to 9% of the total.
Complaints by sector
Leisure advertising continues to be the most complained about business sector with 3,343 non-broadcast complaints. The top four most complained about sectors – leisure, computers and telecoms, health and beauty and holidays and travel - accounted for over half (53%) of all complaints received. Complaints about food/drink and alcohol advertising declined by 40% and 37% respectively.
Complaints by media
Ads in the national press received the most complaints (2,270) and also featured in six out of ten of the most complained about non-broadcast campaigns. Internet advertising complaints continued to rise, becoming the fourth most complained about media, ahead of magazine advertising. But the Report identifies a downward trend in complaints about direct mail and posters with falls of 11.7% and 18.7% respectively.
Launching the Annual Report, ASA Chairman, Lord Borrie QC, said 2004 was a year when changes to the regulatory landscape had made it easier for consumers to complain: “Not only has the creation of the one-stop shop benefited the consumer by making it easier to contact a single regulator, the ASA’s new role also carries extended responsibilities. The ASA has found itself well and truly under the microscope with Ofcom, Parliament, advertisers and consumers all watching to see how the one-stop shop performs. The ASA will be no less robust or independent in its broadcast decisions. The advertising industry’s need for social responsibility has been heightened, not lessened, by the extension of self-regulatory control.”
Click here to download a PDF of the ASA Annual Report 2004