6. The ASA rules, regulations and industry

What I have learnt about industry in relation to television advertising and how I intend to use this knowledge and understanding, to ensure my production is appropriate to the media industry context of the set brief I have chosen.

The advertising standards authority (ASA) is the UK's regulator of advertising. Ads in the UK are regulated through a system of 'self-regulation' and 'co-regulation'.

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 stick to the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising. Television adverts are forms of Broadcast advertising

and due to this must follow the BCAP code. 

These are the first five sections of the BCAP code which in total has over 30 sections.
Both the public and the industry may make complaints against an advert. The ASA will then proceed to check the advert and if they find that the complaints stand, the advert may be banned.

This article shows an example of a banned fragrance advert. This advert was banned as it was deemed inappropriate for children. Despite this, it was then broadcast on ITV where complaints were received for putting a 'mildly sexual' TV advert during the show 'You've been framed' which children watch.












This perfume TV advert for Jimmy Choo is an example of an advert which is suitable for broadcasting on TV as it upholds the rules of the ASA.


In my advert I must be careful to follow the rules of the ASA in order to meet the requirements for a television advert.






E4 and the context this provides:
I have learnt that E4 mainly appeals to the 16-34 age range the majority of whom are female. Their audience is niche predominantly targeting students and young adults. Their most popular shows are The Big Bang Theory, The Inbetweeners and New girl, therefore suggesting the demographic enjoys American sitcoms. This is useful in relation to my adverts as the audience finds comedy appealing. Also the fact that 59% of the viewers are female means that any adverts slightly skewed towards girls and young women will be appropriate and relatable.

Copyright:
When making my adverts I must ensure the music used is copyright free in order to conform to TV advertising regulations. In the UK, music that is over 100 years old is copyright free as well as any artists who deem their music with no binding laws to suggest copyright, is copyright free. For this reason, I will carefully select music from what is available to me, to ensure it is not breaching copyright or TV advertising regulations.
I have chosen the tracks 'lift it up' from free music archive and 'animals are free' from freeplaymusic.com to ensure that all the music I have used is copyright free.