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50 years of the ASA

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Ivo

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A brief history of the Advertising Standards Agency, from Wikipedia:

In 1961 the Advertising Association established the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) to draft the British Code of Advertising Practice (the CAP Code). In 1962 the industry set up the Advertising Standards Authority (so named even though it is not a public authority in the usual sense) to adjudicate on complaints that advertisements had breached the new Code. The ASA operated under an independent chairman who was to have no vested interest within the industry.

Not long after the inception of the ASA the Molony Committee considered but rejected proposals to introduce a system to regulate the advertising industry by statute. The Committee reported that it was satisfied that the industry could be regulated effectively from within by the ASA. A guarded comment within the report, however, warned that the self-regulatory system depended upon the satisfactory working of the ASA and the maintaining of acceptable standards.

(Note their use of the term "Authority" and not "Agency")

In relation to their 50th anniversary, the ASA have released some statistics about complaints in relation to advertising. They have dealt with 431,000 complaints in those 50 years, of which a hideous 31,000 were in 2011 alone. Is this in relation to more people being too "stuck up" to complain (probably not)? A larger number of television sets (probably)? More controversial advertising (probably)?

Their Top Ten adverts for complaints include, among others, one for the Christian Party that suggested there is a God, one for Paddy Power with people kicking a cat, and one for Barnardo's which related to Child Abuse (the only one of the ten I recognise). There is also a Top Ten for 2011, which tellingly includes no less than three for Phones 4 U - maybe it's time they hire some new advertising staff...

BBC Article
 
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LE Greys

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And nothing about the annoying habit of turning the volume up during the breaks (or down during the programme).
 

Clip

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. There is also a Top Ten for 2011, which tellingly includes no less than three for Phones 4 U - maybe it's time they hire some new advertising staff...

Id say if they are still getting in the news over a year later then the AD agency have done their job well.

Adverts that work are ones that stick in your mind and those P4U ones definitely did for me just like the old Hamlet ones
 
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