Did you know that the new advertising code kicks in from 31 March?
It now covers digital advertising in non-broadcast areas, such as pre-rolls, post-rolls, mobile phone ads, in game ads, etc etc – (you can imagine how wide this list gets). And it now means that all these ads have to be “legal”, “honest”, “decent” and of course “truthful”.
Well it’s about time, don’t you think?
CAP (Committee of Advertising Practice) now has the remit and resources to go after companies and individuals if they are not compliant with the new regulations. However, it does seem that there will not be any close monitoring but rather a culture of self-regulation and complaints handling – how else could something so large be handled!? This is considered to be faster and cheaper than any form of statutory regulation.
What does the extended function cover?
“advertisements other than marketing communications, by or from companies, organisations, or sole traders on their own websites, or in other non-paid for space, online under their control, that are directly connected with the supply or transfer of goods, services, opportunities and gifts, or which consist of direct solicitations, of donations as part of their own fundraising activities.”
This means that if you are selling an item, at an advertised cost – you should sell it at that cost. And if you are guaranteeing delivery you honour that guarantee. So no more emails after you have paid telling you the item is out of stock and you have to wait a month!
Now this is interesting – although customer reviews about a product or service continue to be free of regulation, so you can continue to pretty much add your own personal opinion about anything you want (website owner permitting of course) – Website owners can no-longer make up false customer reviews, testimonies, etc in their marketing unless it is made clear of it’s commercial intent.
But that’s not all. There are some exclusions to the new regs. And guess who can make any claims they like – yup, Politicians. The waters also get muddy where it says that “Public Relations Material” is not covered (sounds like a get out of jail loophole?) and a few other areas like “heritage advertising”
Still all of this is good news for the consumer and hopefully it will help to clean up the UK digital arena a bit more!
TV Adverts | Documentaries | Viral Videos | Corporate Videos | Subtitling | Web Design | Search Engine Optimisation Services (SEO) | DVD Replication | Web Video
