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BCAP Consultation: The Regulation of Unfair Commercial Practices in TV and Radio Advertisements

On Friday 21 November 2008, the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) revised its TV and Radio Advertising Standards Codes to correctly reflect the legal requirements of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (CPRs). The CPRs prohibit unfair trading practices and identify misleading and aggressive practices as forms of unfair practice. They introduce legal definitions of unfair, misleading and aggressive trading practices and set out a framework for the assessment of commercial practices that are alleged to be unfair. The CPRs also prohibit specific practices on the grounds that they are always unfair.

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An Insider's Guide to Advertising Regulation - Scotland

On Monday 17 November speakers from the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) gave a presentation aimed at advertisers, marketers, agencies and media owners based in and around Edinburgh.

The seminar covered information about advertising regulations in the UK, how the ASA & CAP work and practical information on our complaints & investigation procedures. It was presented by Maria Donde (Copy Advice Executive) and Kirsteen Pitkin-Douglas (Code Policy Executive).

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Recent and future events

CAP has a long and varied line-up of training events planned for 2008. To find out what’s on and when click here.

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ALCOHOL SURVEY 2007: SPIRITS ARE HIGH

During December 2007, the Compliance team undertook a survey of alcohol ads, the second to be undertaken since CAP and BCAP revised the alcohol clauses in 2005.The survey sought to establish whether the compliance rate had declined or improved since the previous survey. Encouragingly, the compliance rate improved by 3% points to 97%.

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TV Food Advertising to Children: an imminent review by OFCOM

OFCOM has said it intends to review the effects of restrictions on HFSS product TV advertising to children. Does the review affect you?

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ASA, Animals and Animation

If you use animals or animation to add appeal to your ads, you need to take special care whether you are targeting adults, teenagers or children. A couple of ASA adjudications remind us of some pitfalls.

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In the driving seat?

The ASA recently upheld complaints about three different ads because they could have encouraged or condoned dangerous and irresponsible driving. Make sure you don’t take a wrong turning when featuring cars in ads.

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Gambling Guidance

CAP and BCAP have just introduced important guidance on three aspects of the gambling-related clauses in the CAP and BCAP Codes.

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Greatest Hits fail to score with the ASA

Recently, a diamond retailer was not a hit with the ASA, which adjudicated that “hits” are an inadequate measure of the popularity of the retailer’s website. That decision is a lesson to marketers wanting to make, for example, “biggest” or “No 1” superiority claims for their website.

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