Regulatory bodies (ASA).

The ASA is funded by advertisers through an arms length arrangement that

guarantees the ASAs independence.
Collected by the Advertising Standards Board of Finance (Asbof) and the
Broadcast Advertising Standards Board of Finance (Basbof), the 0.1% levy on the
cost of buying advertising space and the 0.2% levy on some direct mail ensures
the ASA is adequately funded to keep UK advertising standards high. We also
receive a small income from charging for some seminars and premium industry
advice services.
We receive no Government funding and therefore our work is free to the tax
payer.
The levy system means the ASA has the necessary resources to handle more
than 30,000 complaints each year and independently check thousands of ads
every year. In addition, the funding supports CAPs Copy Advice service which
provides pre-publication advice to advertisers, agencies and the media.
The separate funding mechanism ensures that the ASA does not know which
advertisers choose to fund the system or the amount they contribute.
The levy is the only part of the system that is voluntary. Advertisers can choose
to pay the levy, but they cannot choose to comply with the Advertising Codes or
the ASAs rulings.
https://www.asa.org.uk/About-ASA/Funding.aspx
We deal with most types of ads but not all. If we cant deal with your complaint
ourselves, we will try to help you contact the right body.
The types of ads we deal with include:

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
Commercial e-mail and SMS text message ads
Posters on legitimate poster sites (not fly posters)
Leaflets and brochures
Cinema commercials
Advertising within smartphone and tablet apps
Direct mail (advertising sent through the post and addressed to you
personally)
Door drops and circulars (advertising posted through the letter box without
your name on)
Ads on CD ROMs, DVD and video, and faxes
Sales promotions, such as special offers, prize draws and competitions
wherever they appear.

Online behavioural advertising

The ASA now regulates Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA). OBA is the
practice of collecting information from web browsers so that it can be used
to present online advertisements that are more relevant to the user of a
particular computer. The rules we oversee require businesses to make
clear when they are collecting and using information for OBA and require
them to provide a tool so that you can choose not to receive it. If youre
considering making a complaint about receiving OBA advertising, we
recommend you read the advice here as it will help you decide whether
making a complaint to us is the right option for you at this stage.
https://www.asa.org.uk/Consumers/What-we-cover.aspx
Self-regulation means that the industry has voluntarily established and
paid for its own regulation.
The system works because it is powered and driven by a sense of
corporate social responsibility amongst the advertising industry.
Advertisers have an interest in maintaining the system because:
Making sure that consumers are not misled, harmed or offended by ads
helps to maintain consumer confidence in advertising. Advertising that is
welcomed by consumers is good for business.
It maintains a level playing field amongst businesses. It is important for
fair competition that all advertisers play by the same rules.
Maintaining the self-regulatory system is much more cost-effective for
advertisers than paying the legal costs of a court case.
The role of the industry is to write the Advertising Codes, help advertisers
to comply with the rules and to pay for the system.
However, the industry does not administer its own rules. It has established
the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) as the independent adjudicator.
Advertising self-regulation is flexible in its scope and is able to adapt to
market conditions. This is particularly important in the fast-moving
advertising industry.
The Code reflects requirements in law, but also contains many rules that
are not required by law at all. The advertising industry has chosen to
exercise this self-restraint not only to make further legislation
unnecessary, but also as a public demonstration of its commitment to high
standards in advertising.
Because the system works successfully, the UK Government has not
needed to regulate directly. However, that doesnt mean that the views of
politicians or civil society and the wider industry - on advertising
regulation are unimportant, so we actively seek out their views on our
work.
https://www.asa.org.uk/About-ASA/About-regulation/Self-regulation-of-nonbroadcast-advertising.aspx

As the UKs independent regulator for advertising across all media, our
work includes acting on complaints and proactively checking the media to
take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements, sales
promotions and direct marketing.
If we judge an ad to be in breach of the UK Advertising Codes, it must be
withdrawn or amended and the advertiser must not use the approach
again. Each year we consider over 30,000 complaints about around 20,000
ads.
As well as acting on complaints, we carry out many other regulatory
activities to make sure advertising stays within the rules. For example, the
ASA actively checks ads in all media and regularly conducts surveys of
advertisements published by sectors where there is either unsatisfactory
compliance with the Codes or where there are societal concerns about that
sector.
And together with CAP, we work to support the industry to help them get
their ads right before they are published. For example by providing
guidance, pre-publication advice and training for the industry.
What happens before an ad is published?
The Advertising Codes require that all claims must be substantiated before
being published or aired.
Pre-clearance for TV and radio advertising
The vast majority of TV and radio ads are pre-cleared before they are
broadcast.
Under their licences broadcasters must take reasonable steps to ensure
that the ads they broadcast are compliant with the UK Code of Broadcast
Advertising.
To help them do this, the broadcasters have established and funded two
pre-clearance centres:
Clear cast for television commercials
Radio centre for radio ads.
Non-broadcast advertising
There are many millions of non-broadcast ads published every year in the
UK, so it would be impossible to pre-clear every one of them. For example
there are more than 30 million press advertisements and 100 million
pieces of direct marketing every year.
However, lots of advice and guidance is available through CAP Advice and
Training. This includes free bespoke pre-publication advice from Copy
Advice and online resources that advertisers, agencies and media can use
to check the latest positions on hundreds of different advertising issues.
https://www.asa.org.uk/About-ASA/About-regulation.aspx

Our primary sanction is to have advertisements that we judge to be in

breach of the Codes withdrawn and prevent them from appearing again. In
the vast majority of cases advertisers agree to withdraw their ads
following an upheld ASA ruling.
Rulings about TV and radio ads are followed immediately under the
broadcasters licences.
For non-broadcast advertising, on the rare occasions that an advertiser
refuses to comply with an ASA ruling CAP can impose further sanctions to
bring to bring them into line.
The ASA is a non-statutory body so we do not have the power to fine or
take advertisers to court.
https://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/FAQs.aspx

Bernardos, 2008
The ASA received 840 complaints about this Bernards ad campaign, which was
designed to raise awareness of domestic child abuse.
The TV campaign featured repeated scenes of violence and drug-taking, which
many viewers found upsetting and not suitable for broadcast at times when
children were likely to be watching.
We did not doubt the distress or offence described by many of the complainants.
However, we considered the ads were appropriately scheduled and their aim
justified the use of strong imagery.
ASA
https://www.asa.org.uk/~/media/Files/ASA/Adcheck/Ad
%20Banks/Harmful/Harmful%20advertising.ashx
Tesco
The ASA is the UK self-regulatory body for maintaining standards in advertising.
It does this by administering the mandatory advertising Codes and by actively
monitoring compliance.
The Codes contain special rules for alcohol, which sit on top of the general
provisions that all ads must not mislead, harm or offend. The rules for alcohol
advertisements were strengthened significantly in 2005 and are actively
promoted and enforced.
The ASA has undertaken this survey to determine the compliance rate of alcohol
ads1 with the British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing
(the CAP Code) and with the BCAP TV and Radio Advertising Standards Codes
(the BCAP Codes).

https://www.asa.org.uk/~/media/Files/ASA/Reports/AlcoholSurveyReport2008.ash
x