Source of audience information

Case study of existing advertising campaigns researching the role and impact of-Advertising standards authority (ASA) and Ofcom

1- What is the background of the ASA?
Back in 1961 CAP or the committee of advertising practice as a independent adjudicator which ran under and followed the new code. Their main aim was to supervise the new self-regulatory system so that adverts where regulated and kept up to standards where viewers would not get offended of any sort, and to also make sure that the adverts do not breach any guidelines which went against the new code.  

2- What is the role of the ASA in the regulation of advertisement?
ASA is a regulator for all the UK, this covers adverts which run on our TV screens and to the radio. They regulate all advertisement across all media. But then they don't cover everything, although most of the media is by them, these re things such as 

• Magazine and newspaper advertisements 
• Radio and TV commercials (not programmes or programme sponsorship) 
• Television Shopping Channels 
• Advertisements on the Internet, including:
  • banner and display ads
  • paid-for (sponsored) search
  • Marketing on companies’ own websites and in other space they control like social networking sites Twitter and Facebook 
  • Commercial e-mail and SMS text message ads
  • Posters on legitimate poster sites (not fly posters)
  • Leaflets and brochures 
  • Cinema commercials 
  • Advertising within smartphone and tablet apps
  • Direct mail (advertising sent through the post and addressed to you personally) 
  • Door drops and circulars (advertising posted through the letter box without your name on) 
  • Ads on CD ROMs, DVD and video, and faxes
  • Sales promotions, such as special offers, prize draws and competitions wherever they appear.

Their income is generated by the advertisers themselves, this is done by the arm's length agreement. It is also how the ASA are claimed independent as they have no government funding.   

3- What is the legal standing of the ASA and in the relation to Ofcom?

With the ASA managing advertisements such as TV, Radio etc. they make sure that the adverts do not breach any rules so that they are viewer friendly and do not cause any harm to anyone watching the advert. However Ofcom look at the revenue side of things but also make sure that what the viewer is watching, is going to be 100% and their are not any false claims made within the advert. 

4 - What are the procedures of the organisation? 

The ASA are there to make sure that the viewers are happy with what is shown on their Television screens. They allow themselves to reach to the public by letting them contact them via a complaint form. After this they reply back to the complaint giving you information about what will happen to the advert. In most cases not much will, unless there is reoccurring complaints about the advert where then they will take a look at the advert seeing what they can do to get rid of the complaints.  

5 - What are the key parts of the code governing food and soft drink advertising and children and advertising that you think will be important to bare in mind for your advert?

When making my advert I will have to think about the watershed I will be using. This is to make sure that I do not break any regulations and rules. To make sure this does not happen, I will look at the dialogue I will use within the advert to make sure there are no rude terms or inappropriate gestures being made. I will also have to make sure that what i am trying to sell is 100% legit, this is so i do not breach any Ofcom regulations. 

6 - Case Studies 
This 1960's advert could be claimed to be sexist, because it's showing that women need to please their men and in this case you would would have to do that by making him a good coffee. This is off-putting, making women feel as if it's compulsory that they have to please their man, and to fact that it is set in a kitchen makes  it stereotypical. 


















Reebock easy tone advert. 
This is a Reebock sports advert claiming that the shoes help tone a women's legs. We see that throughout the advert they use models who are in shape but also wearing the trainers. this is misleading to viewers as it would make them think that with these shoes it would also help them get in shape just like that. Whereas it has been proved that the shoes do nothing of the sort but only just trainers with the brand name on them. 

Techniques and associations of advertisement

Overt 

This is the Go Compare car insurance advert. We can see the advert has an open message straight away, but we know exactly what the advert is going to be about from 0:03, when the man says "car insurance hay." This tells us the advert is going to be on car insurance. Then the advert uses it's traditional theme song where the man just repeats Go compare  Then also see at 0:12 he sings about how Go Compare will help you and how it makes your life merry etc. This is telling us as viewers that we should choose Go compare for our car insurance because it could give us all of those things in life which then leads on to, at 0:35 when in the theme song he mentions "you should thank your stars that you went to go compare." This is telling the viewer Go Compare would work for you. Then when we look at the target audience the advert is aimed at, we could say its for average working class people, this is from looking at the people who where having a coffee, This shows the advert is aimed at middle aged men who work on an average salary  We also noticed that when the man mentioned car insurance, the tone in which he said it in was very negative and then with the theme tune being very upbeat and catchy it could change the mood of the whole advert, Which allows the viewer to remember it whenever their in need of car insurance. Then if we take this advert and put it in the uses and gratifications theory, we can see that is it is a source of information where its helping us seek advice on practical matters.

Hidden 

So the T-Mobile dance advert which is very random and actually has nothing to do with the mobile network itself, although the message behind it makes a lot of sense. Because from 0;30 to 0:50 we see a bunch of people come together for a dance, this is their way of telling us that they are connecting loads of people just by using their mobile Network. Looking at the people within the video, I think that they have aimed it at everyone, we can see this from when we look out in the crowd. It is filled with both genders and all ages but mostly people who are 18+, this is to show that anyone can become apart of their network and connect to other people around the world. They also used a number of ethnicity's this to again show that anyone can connect to anyone else around the globe no matter where they are. However the advert itself is very random and would make the viewer question themselves about what they are and whose advertising it. So this is just to show, whenever a individual is in a random place such as a train station it will allow them to remember the advert and potentially purchase their service. We could also say that the advert is very entertaining and reflecting back to the uses and gratifications theory, it allows us to gain some aesthetic enjoyment, because of random the advert is.   

Association - Compassion 

Lee talks about how Action for Children helped his family

So this is an advert from the Action for children series of adverts, where they have children tell their stories using the "draw my life" technique. With it being an animation gives a more visual appealing for the viewer and especially with he whole idea of the advert is to persuade people to donate and help people like lee, this allows them to feel some remorse and put their hands in their pockets. We can then look at the background of the advert, we can see a very old dirty wall. Which is telling us that their living conditions are very poor. We then see a change of atmosphere in the advert at 0:25 where a song comes in the background which sounds positive and we see how the campaign has helped lee which makes the viewer want to help others who are like him. We can also hear Lee's tone of voice throughout the advert, its very disheartening and he sounds incredibly down which makes us as the viewers feel remorse and want to help him. This is the aim of the advert and makes average people feel sorry so they can then donate and help kids like this. Again looking at the uses and gratifications theory we see the advert is a source of information but it allows us to find out about different conditions and surroundings, because the advert is showing us how Lee lived and how the campaign helped him.  

Fear

An advert on relationship abuse is something we hardly see on television, it runs in a very narrative tone with what seems like a normal conversation between a couple but then at 0:10 everything makes a turn when we grips the girl because she refuses to do what he wants. This then builds tension, but not only in the advert but for the viewer because we would be interested in what is going to happen next.  Then we see at 0:48 the boy is then seeing himself through a window but cant be heard or seen and we can see him banging and bashing against the window to stop himself from doing what he is about to do. We then see a message "If you could see yourself, would you stop yourself?" This is to put the ball in your side of the court, as we know that relationship abuse is an unseen issue and not many will confront anyone about, so this makes a viewer who maybe abusing their other half think about what their doing and feel some guilt.As this advert is directed to people at home who may need to think about their actions, this is an advert which allows the viewer to look at their personal identity and makes them reevaluate what they're doing with their lives.

Celebrity endorsement

A Pepsi advert which uses the huge band base around the world, Straight away we can see Harry Styles, probably the most well known member from the group, this is to attract viewers who are Harry's fans to continue watching. So looking at 0:01 we can see where the advert is based, where its a studio where you see the band most likely to be at because of their job titles. Then at 0:07 we see the whole band appear, this is to again attract a fan base to continue watching the advert. with them having a huge profile all around the work so this advert would attract most viewers. We normally link the female fans and this is shown at 0:14 where we see screaming girls behind them, and especially them being One Direction they wont be hard to miss when you see them on TV. So the whole point of using a celebrity is to to use their fan base to help purchase your product or service. Taking the advert and relating it to the uses and gratifications theory, we see it as a sense of social interaction, as we see a huge band such as One Direction, we will then get the chain reaction of word of mouth, where people will then talk about it. This then allows the target audience, mostly teenage girls to talk about the advert among their friends of family.