How does the ASA deal with complaints about broadcast ads?

09 December 2004

More consumers are expected to get off the sofa and complain to the ASA about advertising.

After receiving it, the ASA’s complaint-handling team assesses the complaint, most probably with reference to the commercial and, sometimes, to comments by the RACC (for radio commercials) or the BACC (for TV commercials).  

If the ASA judges that the complaint should fail, that is the end of the matter.  But what if the complaint handler thinks the complainant might have a point?  Here, one of two things might happen. 

If it believes the complaint, despite having some validity, is not justified, the ASA Executive summarises the complaint and recommends its rejection to the ASA Council that deals with broadcast ads.  The Council might agree or might think the complaint warrants a formal investigation.  If the latter, the ASA Broadcast Investigations team begins a formal investigation of the complaint.

If, on the other hand, it thinks the complaint could well be justified, the ASA Executive will either investigate informally, if it believes the problem is minor and has already been or can be resolved easily and quickly, or start a formal investigation, if it does not.  An informal investigation will usually be concluded by an agreement to change or withdraw the offending commercial. 

A formal investigation could easily involve the ASA Investigations team corresponding with both the relevant clearance centre and the relevant broadcaster; the clearance centre will usually respond to the ASA on behalf of the advertiser.  When it has enough information to enable a recommendation to be drafted, the ASA Executive gets the interested parties to comment on the recommendation, considers the comments and submits a recommendation to the ASA Council.  The Council adjudicates on the complaint and the Executive lets the interested parties know the result.  If necessary, the ASA Executive will tell the clearance centre and the broadcaster what remedial action should be taken.  The adjudication is then published on the ASA website, www.asa.org.uk.

The speed all that can happen will obviously vary from one complaint to another.  Some complaints are dealt with in a day or two; others take a few weeks and the most complex ones might take several months before everything can be assessed and a conclusion reached.

If necessary, however, for example to prevent public harm, the ASA may suspend the transmission of an ad while an investigation is in progress.  The ASA did just that within a matter of days after starting its responsibility for the regulation of broadcast ads by getting the Britvic Tango “goat and concrete pipes” commercial withdrawn; complaints against the commercial were later upheld and the ad may not be shown on air again.  Click here to read the adjudication.

Because almost all broadcast commercials are pre-cleared by the RACC or the BACC, the ASA should need to suspend an ad only rarely.

The main difference from how OFCOM, the ITC or the Radio Authority dealt with complaints is that the regulator’s investigations staff no longer decides whether a complaint should be upheld; that decision is taken by the ASA Council.  And an independent review of an adjudication may now be requested whereas formerly appeals were evaluated by the regulator itself.

For a fuller explanation of the ASA’s procedures for handling complaints about broadcast ads, click here.

If you want advice on your proposed commercials, ask either the RACC, for radio ads, or the BACC, for TV ones.