AS1 blog 5: Regulations

Regulations

ASA

The advertising standards authority (ASA) ensure all adverts can be aired and that they follow the rules of advertising. 

The ASA cover a wide variety of advertisements including: 

• Magazine and newspaper advertisements 
• Radio and TV commercials (not programmes or programme sponsorship) 
• Television Shopping Channels 
• Advertisements on the Internet, including:
  • banner and display ads
  • paid-for (sponsored) search
  • Marketing on companies’ own websites and in other space they control like social networking sites Twitter and Facebook 

(https://www.asa.org.uk/Consumers/What-we-cover.aspx)

The ASA deal with complaints by getting the person who wants to complain about an advert to fill in a compliant form. 

Ofcom

Ofcom is the communication regulators for the UK, this means they ensure that people living in the UK are not scammed and get the best uses out of their communication services. 

This is what the actually do and their legal duties are:

• the UK has a wide range of electronic communications services, including high-speed services such as broadband;
• a wide range of high-quality television and radio programmes are provided, appealing to a range of tastes and interests;
• television and radio services are provided by a range of different organisations;
• people who watch television and listen to the radio are protected from harmful or offensive material;
• people are protected from being treated unfairly in television and radio programmes, and from having their privacy invaded;
• a universal postal service is provided in the UK - this means a six days a week, universally priced delivery and collection service across the country; and
• the radio spectrum (the airwaves used by everyone from taxi firms and boat owners, to mobile-phone companies and broadcasters) is used in the most effective way.

(http://www.ofcom.org.uk/about/what-is-ofcom/)

Ofcom only covers TV and radio complaints whereas the ASA cover all types of advertisements.

Ofcom ask people to make a complaint within 20 days of the airing of the TV show or radio show. to make a complaint, on the Ofcom website there is a complain tab and when you click that they get you to answer some questions about the programme you are complaining about.

Banned tv advert

The ASA banned this TV advert because 37 viewers complained about this advert because it was shown at 8:45 and because it's a trailer for a horror TV show and it was during Britain's got talent which is a family show with children watching. The issue with this was viewers complained because of the time it was showed and there is a possibility of children being distressed by watching this. The ASA decided to upheld it because it can distress young children. it was seen by approximately 1.6 million children, 745,000 of whom were aged between 4 and 9 years. 

AS1 blog 4: Analysing a television advertisement in detail

Analysis of a advert

The advert I am analysing is the Think campaign.

This is the advert I am analysing. The form of this advert is realist because it can happen to the average driver and when you watch it, it makes you feel emotional. The style of the advert is shocking because it makes you feel shocked that it happens. The target audience for this advert is car drivers/parents, we know this because it shows a working business man trying to get on and do his work but he keeps seeing the little boy he killed and it seems like it the boy is haunting him. The advert does this because it shows how much it affects people. 

The advert provokes an emotional response because if your a parent or a driver you would imagine how you will feel if your child got run over or how you would feel if you killed a young child. The advert hasn't used a celebrity because the advert isn't trying to sell any products or any services, its an awareness advert and usually celebrities are used for products or charity adverts to get people to buy/donate. 

It doesn't use any branding because again its for awareness it isn't for selling a product or service so there is no need for a brand. A brand is to identify a company that is selling products or a service and this is promoting road safety so it isn't a company. This advert is very persuasive because the fact it is promoting safety means it has to get through to the viewers and it has to persuade people to be careful on roads. It uses many emotions such as: guilt, sympathy etc. 

The advert is promoting the dangers of road accidents and that it doesn't just effect the the person who gets hit by the vehicle but it also effects the driver. It does this is various ways, during the advert the man (the driver who killed a kid in a car accident) is doing everyday activities but as he is doing them it shows a little boy in every scene laying on the floor dead and the man sees him and it shows the man's life being ruined by the guilt. 

The scene that shows the man going down the escalators it shows the man and the little boy at the bottom of the escalators and shows the man looking the opposite away from the boy, this is effective because it suggests the man can't cope with the guilt. It adds to the purpose of the advert because it 

portrays the man's guilt is unbearable. 

AS1 blog 3: Styles of television adverts

Advertisers use different styles of advertisers to appeal to different target audiences. The styles of adverts are:

Humour: This is an advert for Vodafone, the target audience for this is mainly adults who use phones. this style aims to make the audience laugh to make it memorable. It makes it memorable because it stands out to other adverts that are promoting mobile phones. This style suits this product because this isn't a serious products and this isn't a serious advert.

Parody: A parody advertisement makes references to well known texts or famous/iconic movie scenes etc... and makes fun of them. this style makes us remember the advert and it makes us feel smart that we knew what it was referencing. a good example of this is the '118 118' adverts and they name themselves 'the A-team' obviously making fun of the A-team. An advert of theirs makes fun of the Ghostbusters theme tune, "who you going to call?".  This is effective because it makes people remember the advert which means the will remember the product.

surreal: Surreal adverts make the audience not sure of what the products is because it has nothing to do with the product until the end usually when the advertisers put the product at the end. This type of advert is memorable because they are not normal, they are totally different to other adverts out there. This is effective because it is different and the audience are likely not to see an advert like this that is so strange so they will remember. 

Shock: This style is to try and get the audiences attention and makes us feel sympathy. This style is usually for charities or to get you to think about safety. This is effective because it may be personal to some of the audience which means they will be more affected and will get them thinking about the purpose of the advert and if it is a charity there would be more of a chance of them donating.  

Repetition: Adverts are repeated so much a day because it gets more people seeing the advert and the more chance of people remembering the advert. It's affective to repeat a advert because it gets more people watching and remembering the advert and the purpose of the advert. 

Famous faces: This style means the advertisers use a celebrity that people know and if people look up to this celebrity and see them promoting the product they will go out to be like them and buy it. this is mostly used in fashion adverts for fragrances or clothes and jewellery, this is because if someone sees their favourite celebrity wearing something they will want to be like them and buy it. In this advert the advertisers used David Beckham to promote a new clothing line, they done this because they know David Beckham is a well known celebrity and that men want to be like him because everyone knows who he is.

Intertextuality: This style is when adverts use references from other texts, usually films, and they do this because if the audience understand the reference they will feel smart, thats what the advert style is for to get the audience to feel smart about understanding the reference. 

All of these styles are successful in my opinion but it depends on what the product is and how the advert is directed, if it is directed good and works that style it will be successful for example, if a charity advert uses surrealism people wont take the advert serious even tho it is a serious advert however if it uses shock or famous faces it will work because the audience will feel sympathy and also will want to donate because the famous face is promoting the advert.