So we’ve covered who the ASA is and what they do, so now it’s time to address the all-important question… why should you care?
Well, the ASA publish their adjudications every Wednesday morning.
You can go and read these on their website. Some of the things you’ll see will make you stare in disbelief, wondering what on Earth the advertiser was thinking.
But this isn’t always the case.
If you read the upheld cases, you’ll notice that even minor mistakes can lead to an investigation into your ads, which can mean that your business is in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons!
What’s more…
… it can take just ONE complaint to trigger an investigation!
You may have seen ad campaigns where the ASA have received 100s of complaints, but this is not the norm. Most of the ads complained about only have a couple of complaints about them, and it can take just 1 complaint to start an investigation.
The ASA will review all complaints received about an ad to decide whether the ad may have broken any of the rules and if this is the case they will contact the advertiser. This could be the first time you become aware of an issue with your advertising, as many complainants will not come to you first!
Some brands accept that you can’t please everybody all the time, so complaints are part of the process. In fact, some seem to think that any publicity is good publicity so deliberately cross the lines in their advertising, just to get their name talked about.
But for many, this has seriously backfired.
Because once the ASA is involved, they will look at the ad and assess its compliance with all the rules, not just those raised in the complaint.
It maybe the complaint is not upheld, as there was no breach of the rules, but the ASA can raise their own “complaint” if they find non-compliance in a different part of the Code, and it is very rare that anything the ASA raise is found to be wrong.
If a complaint is upheld, your brand will be featured in Wednesday’s adjudications on their website, and many make the news headlines.
Unlike the ICO, the ASA can’t fine you. However, an upheld complaint can affect how your brand is seen by customers and suppliers alike and this has happened to brands that seem to “deliberately” play fast and loose with the rules. The publicity following your advert being banned can bring other skeletons out of the cupboard and into public knowledge.
For example, Brewdog had 3 upheld complaints in 11 months. And following the publicity these created, there were allegations concerning how they treated their staff, which again made the headlines.
Whether these issues would have been so newsworthy were they not already in the headlines for their advertising practices is an interesting question.
The lesson here is to avoid attention from the ASA if you can, and certainly don’t go looking for it!
Next time…
… who are the ICO and what do they do?