Who are the ASA?

is the self-regulatory organisation (SRO) of the advertising industry in the

United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot
interpret or enforce legislation.

What do they do?

The ASA regulate the content of advertisements, sales promotions and
direct marketing in the UK" by investigating "complaints made about ads,
sales promotions or direct marketing", and deciding whether such
advertising complies with its advertising standards codes. These codes
stipulate that "before distributing or submitting a marketing
communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary
evidence to prove all claims, whether direct or implied, that are capable of
objective substantiation" and that "no marketing communication should
mislead, or be likely to mislead, by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration,
omission or otherwise.

What are the rules they follow?

They have to make sure that the advert is appropriate for children to see
and they also need to make sure that they do not cause harm and offence
to anyone that might be looking at the advert. They also need to make
sure that the adverts are not sexually inappropriate and also make sure
that the adverts do not offend anyone.

Adverts that have been banned by the ASA

An example of a advert being banned is Paddy Powers Oscar
Pistourious advert which was making light of a murder trial and
the death of a woman, prompted ASA to suspend the ad
immediately. ASA had 5,525 complaints about the advert. Making
light of a murder trial and the death of a woman, prompted us to
suspend the ad immediately. I belive that they had the right to
ban this advert because they are placing a bet on a muder trial and also
on the future of a mans life this is unfair to the victims family.

Another example is that the Sun dream team set an email

to their subscribers saying that they could win a date with a
Page 3 model of their choice. This advert has 1,711
complaints saying that this advert was seen as a sexist
towards women. They upheld the complaints that the email
was offensive and irresponsible for presenting women as
objects to be won. I belive this should have been banned
because The Sun are using women as a prize and some
women would find this offencive because they are seen as a prize.

The ASA received complaints that two VIP e-cigarette TV ads

glamorised and promoted the use of tobacco products. They did
not uphold the complaints about glamorisation, but did consider
the ads depicted the products being exhaled in a way that created
a strong association with traditional tobacco smoking. This Advert
has 200 complaints. I believe that this advert should not have
been banned because it only had 200 complaints which isnt that many
and its nothing not really many people care about it