ASA Launches Scottish Campaign

A brand new advertising campaign for the Advertising Standards Authority launches this week in Scotland to promote its role in helping to keep all ads ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’. It has been developed in partnership with the Advertising Association’s Trust Working Group and features creative by The Leith Agency starring famous brands including Audi, Churchill, IRN-BRU, Marmite, Mastercard and Tesco, all generously supported by donated media space. Public response will be tracked as a test for further campaigns across other UK nations as part of the industry’s drive to rebuild public trust in advertising.

The ASA’s new campaign takes famous advertising campaigns for brands and interprets them in a fresh take to remind the public that all ads are fully regulated. Straplines such as Churchill’s “OOoh Yes“, Mastercard’s “Priceless” and Marmite’s “Love it or hate it” will feature in print, outdoor and online ads, while two TV 10’ and 20’ ads will feature Churchill and Marmite. It will run as a national campaign across TV (STV, C4 Scotland, Sky), Radio (Global & Bauer Media stations), Print (All Scottish National titles), Outdoor (Global Outdoor, JC Decaux, Clear Channel), Social (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok) and Online Display in activity planned by Mediacom.

Stephen Woodford, Chief Executive, Advertising Association, said: “We know that strong awareness of the ASA as an effective regulator of advertising content correlates with public trust in advertising and this campaign demonstrates the breadth of the ASA’s remit across all media. Our thanks must go to the brilliant efforts of the teams at Leith, Mediacom and all our media owner partners. The creative idea harnesses the power of some of Britain’s best-loved campaigns and is a tremendous demonstration of the industry support for our world-class self-regulatory system in the ASA and the creative strengths of the Scottish ad industry. We all have an interest in rebuilding public trust in advertising and I’m sure this campaign will play a key role in moving us forward in the right, positive direction.”

Guy Parker, Chief Executive, Advertising Standards Authority, said: “Our new ad campaign will help raise awareness of the ASA’s vital role regulating advertising, crucially including online, by playing around with, and celebrating, famous UK ads.  The collaborative approach to our new ad campaign clearly shows the support for effective advertising self-regulation.  And so we are immensely grateful to the AA, Leith and Mediacom for helping us to create and plan the campaign pro bono, and to the many media owners and platforms who have so kindly donated space and airtime.”

Brian Coane, Client Partner, Leith, said: “Thanks to the support of some of Britain’s leading brands we’ve been able to create a campaign that features the ads the public love as well as reminding them the ASA is there for them, to make sure all UK ads stick to the rules.  The creative team, Jim Swan and Sam Muir, did an excellent job in finding a way to develop the campaign with humour to engage viewers while making sure the message that the ASA regulates all ads including online and social media is clear.”