Every Wednesday morning,the Advertising Standards Authority publish their weekly decisions on adverts that may have shocked,misled, offended or caused other issues with people. This week's 23 rulings include raspberry diet claims/ BMW warrantry offers/gas fire efficiency/topless males and female hot pants with perfume/muscle trials/hypnosis techniques and weekend clubbing. Not all in the same advert though I can see some related connections/themes lol. Here's the interesting point and question to YOU. Out of the 23 complaints ,19 were upheld and 3 upheld in part.So
So does this say MORE about the advertisers OR are some of these trivial.Have a look at the list.You can also sign up to the link for regular free weekly Wednesday morning "entertainment" -all in the best possible taste!
http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications.aspx?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_term=&utm_content=ASA%20website&utm_campaign=2012%20Wednesday%20Rulings
4 Responses
notwithstanding the genuinely misleading….
….most of the advertisers concerned would probably laugh at the idea that they need training….indeed, they would probably think that they should be training others. There is no such thing as bad publicity in this area; notoriety sells, shock sells, offence sells, especially where the complainants can be portrayed as prudish or out of touch with the target audience. No media is going to stop carrying their advertising simply because they were deemed to be a bit OTT, so there is no loss there…..but someone might actually talk about their "ban"….as we are now, which all adds to their exposure and therefore the raising of the awareness of their product.
Sadly we see this in many areas of the public interest…..books that sell because their authors are convicted criminals, the whole genre of the "shock-jock", poeple who become celebrities simply because they got caught cheating on a TV quiz show, or were censured for racist comment on a reality TV programme.
Rus
http://www.coach-and-courses.com
Publicity
Actually, I think you are quite wrong on one point Rus about the well worn weary cliche "all publicity is good publicity etc".1. The ASA have a growing number of consultative panels made up of hard headed business people/advertisers who are beginning to realise that market share/influence etc is driven by these considerations. Here's a prediction Rus -you read it here first – you will see that the Leveson outcomes going through at the moment for the media, will soon be emulated in the world of advertising and marketing.Watch this space lol. 2. Rainbow currency,a concept once thought of as pink and fluffy, is equally hard headed now in terms of disposable income for a huge range of diverse groups in society – The pink/grey/purple/blue £££ AND $$$ is certainly at the forefront of our clients minds in the world of marketing and advertising.
I certainly agree with you on the chatter factor-we talk about it,so it gets publicity.And yes that raises the visibility of the product etc.But I have found with caselaw and the hard headed education of experience amongst the transgressors that these are often empty,hollow,shallow, pyrrhic victories. The world is changing
interesting….
1. "The ASA have a growing number of consultative panels made up of hard headed business people/advertisers who are beginning to realise that market share/influence etc is driven by these considerations"…..true, but if these people are working with the ASA (Advertising STANDARDS Authority, they are probably already believers in standards….it is unlikely that they are representative of the people or organisations being censured by the ASA.
2. Market segmentation means that an advertiser aims to NOT alienate the market to whom he she is trying to sell……in many cases they probably don't care at all about the population outside that market. For instance, if I'm marketing a very customer-centric product or service, the market segment for which is exclusively the gay community, I probably don't care that much if I offend a proportion of the heterosexual population. But if I can gain notoriety, publicity and exposure by offending some people who wouldn't want, need or dream of buying my product/service, then that is "good" publicity.
3. My point also was not that the offending advertisers don't need training, but they they themselves would deny that they need it……in much the same way that a racist/homophobe/xenophobe will deny his or her need for E&D training.
Adverts
Oh yes, some are the converted but what is interesting is that how "offenders" join the panels and for some,not all, a eureka moment(penny really dropping) moment comes about.
Yes too in respect of your other point -we all have prejudices and as you infer, others think they are, or say they are "colour blind" (a stupid phrase). It takes time but our training exercises in this quite fericious world of marketing etc around say ADMan and Eve involving "managing your prejudices" does have some impact on some. You'll never truly eradicate Prejudice or Discrimination or Non Prejudiced Discriminators or get Non Prejudiced Non Discriminators. All that can be sensibly attempted is helping others to manage both -stick and carrot usually.