Advertising Matters 18.09.20

Setting the advertising standard

On Monday the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) launched a new advertising campaign in Scotland to promote its role in helping to keep all ads ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’. It has been developed in partnership with our AA Trust Working Group and features a range of creative executions by The Leith Agency starring famous brands such as Audi, Churchill, IRN-BRU, Marmite, Mastercard and Tesco, all generously supported by donated media space.

The 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. It will run as a national campaign in Scotland across TV, Radio, Print, Outdoor, Social and Online Display in activity planned by MediaCom.

Our Chief Executive, Stephen Woodford, 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.”

Guy Parker, Chief Executive, ASA, 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.”

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.”

You can read more about the campaign on our website here. The launch was also covered widely in the media including in The Drum, Little Black Book and Mediatel.

Update on HFSS advertising

Over 40 members of the AA’s Food Advertising Working Group met yesterday to discuss the proposed restrictions on HFSS advertising announced at the end of July by Government. Members were also joined by senior officials from DCMS and the obesity policy team at DHSC for the first part of the call, who led them through current thinking within Government on the proposals and timelines for consultation and implementation.

They reiterated the Government’s wish to reduce obesity in the country and their wish to see a 9pm watershed on HFSS advertising on TV and online, with the potential also of a full ban online, by the end of 2022. The officials also took questions from the FAWG members on the call. The second half of the meeting saw members discuss the plans on HFSS advertising and how the AA and industry should best respond over the coming months.

We need your help!

timeTo has launched a new survey to understand how much things have changed during the pandemic and how the combination of remote working and return to office environment has impacted on people’s experience of sexual harassment. We would be very grateful if you could take part in the survey and also share it with your colleagues and peers – we want to get the very best response that we can and use the insights to inform the next wave of activity to build a safe, inclusive workplace for all.

The survey can be found here and it is totally anonymous. Thank you on behalf of the timeTo Steering Committee and timeTo’s founding partners – the Advertising Association, NABS and WACL, supported by ISBA and the IPA.

AD OF THE WEEK

You’ve made it this far – why not treat yourself and watch our ad of the week?

Want the full edition to land in your inbox every Friday? Drop us an email on aa@adassoc.org.uk and quote ‘Ad Matters’.