WHAT AND WHO ARE ASA/CAP?

The ASA is the Advertising Standards Authority which generally ensures that advertising in all forms of media such as newspapers, magazines and billboards are legal and truthful. Through this if an advertisement fails the following then it may be amended or withdrawn. There are two distinctive categories for what the ASA covers and what they don't. For example, The work in which the ASA covers advertisement in is as such: Magazines and newspapers, Radio and TV, Television shopping channels, Posters, Leaflets and brochures, Commercial email and mobile messages and Sale promotions. However they may cover smaller advertisements that I have not named. As well as what they cover, the ASA does not cover the following: Sponsorship of events or tv programmes, Packaging, Shop windows, Telephone calls, Fly-posting, Private classified ads, Press releases, Political ads and the online editorials. 

Basically, the ASA is what makes the advertisement come across as accurate and not misleading. The advertising codes ASA apply concentrate on these two things, as it may lead to offending audiences by seeing certain things within the advert which have not been looked upon and it may even harm young audiences watching it, and this is exactly what the ASA is for - to make sure advertisement is decent and honest as well as legal and truthful. ASA proactively checks ads that appear every year in the UK, the ASA act on complaints to make sure that the consumers of the adverts are protected from misleading or harmful media within the adverts. Within this line of business, even ONE single complaint can lead to a formal investigation regarding the advertisement and its codes. These complaints may refer to whether or not you may think there is something wrong with the advert you have seen or heard or even had great difficultly with the shopping channels etc.

Statistics of the ASA:

The ASA handled 31,458 complaints about 22,397 different adverts.

Nearly 94% of the complaints came from the public.

In 2016, the ASA resolved 28,521 complaints resulting in a record 4,824 ads being changed or withdrawn.

The difference between CAP and ASA is that CAP writes the advertising codes, and ASA assesses if ads breach the advertising codes. CAP is the Committees of Advertising Practice, who write the advertising codes which ASA apply.

CAP is used to analyse adverts to see if they are appropriate to air on television, the ASA check them by looking for CAP codes. If an advert uses a single CAP code then the advert will be deemed for being inappropriateness and be scrapped straight away from the television station that it is being represented on. There are many codes that need to be addressed when producing an advert and many procedures need to be put into place. There are regulations and terms that ASA follow. However the producers of the adverts would have to look at the codes CAP create to produce their advert accordingly. A few of the codes and terms in which producers have to follow are the following:

-Harmful and offensive adverts

These are rules to ensure that adverts do not cause harm or serious distress to audiences due to using shock tactics, unsafe practices or photosensitive epilepsy.

-Children (Whether or not it's appropriate)

Rules that must be followed if directing ads at children or featuring them.

-Privacy

Rules about depicting members of the public, referring to people with a public profile implying endorsement.

-Environment claims

Rules about making 'green' claims for products or services. Rules cover evidence, the clarity of claims and life cycle of products.

-Gambling

Social responsibility rules for gambling and spread betting. The rules cover content and targeting are designed to protect audiences under 18 and the vulnerable.

-Alcohol

Social responsibility rules for alcoholic drinks. The rules cover content and targeting are designed to protect under 18s and the wider population.

-Tobacco

Rules to prevent promotion of smoking via ads for non-tobacco products.

Each section which CAP claims as inappropriate has its own rules to follow regarding of what can be shown and what cannot.

The advertising codes for advertising applies to all forms of product portrayal including on television channels, text or even interactive TV ads. The code is focused on providing rules for;

1.Compliance
2.Harm and Offence
3.Privacy
4.Weight control and slimming
5.Alcohol
6.Motoring
7.Instructional courses
8.Pornography
9.Scheduling
10. Faith or religion

Examples of adverts which may not follow the advertising codes:

(Paddy Power July 2010) - This advert may be withdrawn due to the offensive way in which blind people are viewed to be, and because it may condone cruelty to animals in the way that the cat was kicked and just brushed off instead of appearing worried the man within the advert just promoted Paddy Power. However ASA had the verdict in which they said that the ad was not offensive in itself to create as it referenced to blind people and in fact the actors within the advert were actual blind football players many of whom represented the national team. Paddy Power also contacted the manager of the England Blind Football Team and produced a letter of support from them. With all the complaints that this advert recieved, ASA's final decision was that the ad was not stigmatising blind people and in fact most viewers would just see it as humorous. Although most adverts with disability show sensitivity towards the subject this one may not.

(Zara,2017) - Although this campaign/advert may be trying to influence a positive image to rise, it also contradicts the entire slogan of "love your curves." even though smaller women may have curves, traditionally "curves" would suggest bigger models in which Zara stigmatises and does not use within their advert. Despite the positive movement behind the slogan, this may offend younger audiences in society today as body image is seen as extremely important to many young women who envy models such as those hired by Zara. This advert may urge women to "Love" their curves but really where in the adverts are the curves highlighted? The image of the two models with distinctively un-curvy figures makes the advert entirely misleading - even though slimmer models should love their bodies too. 

Many complaints were made as today the self esteem of girls and women are statistically lower than before, and complaints across media websites such as Instagram and twitter threw outrage across the web with comments such as "The impact this is going to have on young girls is not positive." or  "This is the sort of thing that makes my 15 year old, size 8 daughter think she's fat." as well as "More than ever we need to protect the self esteem of young girls." these comments are the visual workings of many worried parents and reflect many offended audiences.

CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF ADVERTISEMENT

The codes and conventions of an advert are the basic codes and conventions of anything, for example: camera angles, shot types, iconography, editing, lighting, sound etc. We can highlight what different narrative adverts use and why through these elements as they act as a guide for each advert to run smoothly and to promote their product successfully. They would have to use these techniques with high quality to make their production worth it.

Each narrative of advert will have a distinctive convention that we can boldly infer, for example with the codes and conventions of a series/stand alone advert they will create an emotional bond with the advert and the audience. However it is not only how it connects with the audience, but how the advert comes across. There are many conventions of TV advertising, one for example may be the appearances of celebs within the adverts as it is very effective and will result in a population rise of the viewing of that advert. With the help of star appearances people will refer to the adverts as "The one with Drake in!" or "The one with Sharon Osbourne in" this will increase in people looking out for the advert with interest in the product or service it is offering. For example with the advert involving Drake this would aim more towards younger people, and Sharon Osbourne for older audiences.The difference of demographic age groups shows that there are products for everyone and every age.

                     

Not only does this advertisement revolve around a popular celebrity but it uses intertextuality to include a song from another artist within the same generation to attract younger viewers to buy more of Apples products. Intertextuality within this format, is the reference to Taylor Swifts song "Bad Blood" which is highly listened to around the world within the teenage demographic and young adults, highlighting them as Apples target audience. As well as the celeb reference, they use slogans and jingles towards the end of the advert including their logo too as another promotion tool. Another convention that is eye catching is at the beginning of the advert, they show a close up angle of the product being Apple music showing how easy it is to switch songs or have an unlimited amount of music at your go ahead. I also feel as if they tried to make this into a Realist narrative in Drakes life, as they have him behaving like everyone does when music comes on - referring to his lack of vocals towards the end as they make him seem just like everyone else who hasn't got a talent for singing, tone deaf. A disadvantage of producing the advert like this is that many audiences may take it in the wrong perspective and not react to the advert in a serious manner, as well as this they think at the start of the advert is mocking the way other artists sing and they could turn over the channel before the advert produces its message.

Within this advert above, there is a clear distinction to who it is aimed at - depending on the target audience in this case it would be from C to E as they are promoting an app in which requires an efficient payment in which C would be able to afford, and demographics such as E which would be the students and casual workers are most likely to be persuaded towards the app as it is the generation that has grown up around the celebrities endorsed within the advertisement and using such technology. Psychographic segmentation divides the market into groups based on social class, lifestyle and personality characteristics - therefore depending on these factors this specific advertisement would be ideally reflective of the groups of 'succeeders' who seek control, strong goals, confidence and worth ethic typically because they are within higher management and can easily afford the service that the advertisement is providing. As well as this the advertisement also is reflective of the 'explorers' who have energy, seek individualism and experience, this is typically a younger demographic and would most likely be appealed to the celebrity endorsement linked above. 

                   

However in comparison to this young, advanced technology promoting advert we are swarmed by Sharon Osbourne in Money Supermarkets advert. The difference between these two products is definitely the target audience as although Apple is easily bought by all ages the advert is clearly targeted towards younger generations with the hip sort of representation. However Sharon is presented in an advert which targets an older generation of people with responsibility towards car insurance and a guarantee back on money. The doing of this total contrast allows us to recognise the codes and conventions of each advert, besides the target audience the choice of sound/music track also tells us the ageing of the advertisement. Despite the humorous side of this advertisement, many audiences may feel uncomfortable of the thought of a grown man in tight shorts and heels because of the generation they have been born within and think this is abnormal by having this thought many audiences may avoid watching this advert and ignore the message that it is providing. Another disadvantage of portraying the advert within this way is that they may not take it as seriously as they should and think of this advert as a mockery.

Within this advert, as the actors are quite middle aged distributed along side each other wearing suits and ties we can assume as the audience that the demographic can be specifically aimed at A-C as the location is very managed and the actors have briefcases.  Aforementioned in the previous analysis of the apple advertisement, there are psychographic segmentations amongst the advertisement industry, basing audiences on their social classes, lifestyle and personality characteristics. For this advert - the psychographic would ideally be 'Aspirers' who seek status, are materialistic and orientated to image and appearance - ideally the men within the advert who are suited are to reflect the target audience. Also 'Succeeders' would reflect well within this advert. The advertisement provides the target audience with an image of what they're aiming at as the men are all dressed the same and are around the same age category. 

                     

In many adverts - there are different characteristics that may be shown such as Techno effects, cinematography, lighting, editing, sound, music, graphics and special effects. The following may come in forms that can be covertly or overtly shown in many adverts. Like in this advert the CGI effects are overtly shown however they try to make it seem as realistic as possible by the quality of effects they use. In this leading advert for the energy supplier "SSE", they create an emotional connection through the technique of CGI creating an 'amazingly realistic' orangutan animation which is filmed using very dark lighting - fueling the idea that this is an energy supplier advert as the only things that light up the frame are the lights and electricity being provided with this power by SSE. This allows us to recognise a USP within the advert as they are portraying what they are good for, and what they can advantage their customers with. The covert message behind this advert allows the audience to be reminded of how much electricity and power is taken granted for, and even the simplicity of lights can amaze people and it shouldn't be unappreciated. In various shots of the advert, the producers use the orangutans silhouette against the brightness of the lights, portraying the product successfully as they use different intensities at different points within the production to show the broad variety which they can give customers. However the relationship between the Orangutan and the energy company has perplexed many critiques as they wonder what the link between the two is, and this may be a disadvantage as not many people will understand the service that they are trying to provide. 

Within this advert produced by SSE, they demonstrate a representation of a soothing and very high key lighting production and by doing this it may aim towards the audiences of which have high responsibilities within their household such as the demographics of A-C as they may have to manage similar tasks and can relate to this advert and service. The psychographics of this service would most likely be aimed at mainsteamers who seek security, tend to be domestic and favor value of family brands. This is due to the fact that a family would be in the situation of having to need a new electricity company to commit to rather than a psychographic such as Strugglers watching this advert as it would not target them due to financial difficulties most likely and their commitments within society and their lifestyle.

In adverts, a soundtrack may be used to catch the audiences attention and link the soundtrack with that specific advert making it more memorable to the audience and allows the audience to associate that specific sound to the product/service. As well as sound there are many other things the production may do to increase their ratings such as creating a distinctive brand identity, which is usually seen at the end of the advert that instead of using their title they produce a logo to insert into the advert to also associate the advert to their brand. Many adverts also use special effects that are illusions or tricks of the eye to simulate the events within the advert and make it more memorable. 

FORMS OF ADVERTS

Forms are used in advertisements to structure the advert and keep the audiences attention. Through the differentiated use of narrative, an advert can either make the audience want to review the product or the opposite this is why many companies try to show the quality of their product through the shortage of time they are provided within an advert. Within the variation of adverts there are categories of demographic and psychographics that each advertisement and production aim to target within the market of their ideal audience. They produce this categories on the basis of audiences social class, life style and personality characteristics. By doing this they are creating an assumption that will help them produce products and brands that individuals will purchase and reflect their patterns of living. However, they will have to portray and convey the target audiences characteristics and construct clearly within the advertisement. There are many ways an advert can display the product or service, the following are examples of each:

Realistic – A realistic form would appear to be set in a real-life scene. The product or reason behind the advert would generally suggest it is a normal day to day activity. A realistic advert is an advert with a story, appearing to be both believable and realistic. The above would be an exact example of a Realistic form as it illustrates the view of a parent and represents the messiness of every child's youth, it is an easily relate-able advertisement and this is the reason it appeals to a greater audience. The demographic within this advert would be targeted towards C and below as it ideally tries to target towards an every day family life within modern society. However the psychographics of this advert would be Mainstreamers, as they seek security, tend to be domestic and favour value for money family brands. Practically describing what the entire advert aims to be as it typically portrays a working class family becoming messy within the garden and the parental figure being there to clean the mess up. This provides a sense of value for the warmth family gives, and will make audiences from these aforementioned categories relate to the production.

Non-realistic form – A non-realistic form would clearly state that it has a fictional story behind the advert by being situated within a surreal world opposite from reality. Unlike the realistic narrative, it would not show day-to-day behaviour. As well as this a non-realistic form may use special effects and CGI.As shown within this advertisement by The Guardian, we are engaged into the world of surrealism through the iconography of the actors dressed in animal suits representing characters from a fable, the three little pigs. Although this may be inferred as a non-realistic advertisement, what The Guardian have created is very smart as they have promoted their company and newspaper through the fast pace movement of social media and the way news is spread using different perspectives all across the globe. By advertising their newspaper this way it allows the audience to infer that they are very popular in the sense they can access many articles internationally and can raise awareness from being very wide spread. Through this advertisement, they have aimed to target various demographics of audiences such as A-C, however despite aiming their advert towards this demographic group they have also shown signs of mockery and contempt towards the higher management of newspapers and the hierarchy of the media as they are showing how different perspectives can change things. A disadvantage of portraying their newspaper like this is that people may get the wrong image of the company and think that they conspire to produce false titles and headlines too just as they have portrayed within this advert, as well as this by using a fable like advert people may not quite understand the message behind the advert and be confused by its uncertain overt message. 

Animation- An animation advert is just an animated production with the use of voiceovers and maybe CGI. This advert would contain no real actors. Within this advert, the only technique used is of animation and the addition of a music track playing whilst the image is moving. The music used creates an atmosphere for the advert as it illustrates the season of Christmas and the emphasis of being together with people you love, John Lewis tries to highlight the caring and nurturing side of their company as the advert practically relays to you that they are always thinking of their customer. Metaphorically speaking the rabbit could represent their company, and the bear would be the customers/ audience and the rabbit as shown in the advert provides for the bear. By using such opposing animals within the advert they could also be portraying the idea of different family types as this is an advertisement aimed at families for the Christmas season. Therefore the demographic of this production would ideally be any of the demographics from A - E as every category of audience has a family or someone they provide for, this is an advantage as they have not produced an advert aimed at only one type of audience. Each advertisement also aims for a psychographic, this is what audience their advert would reflect. Within this John Lewis advertisement, it would ideally be aimed at Mainstreamers as this category is domestic and lives within the basis of providing for their family. 

Talking Heads – People in the production or advert talk directly to the camera. Aldi performs a talking heads narrative quite well as they are a food producing company they use this advertisement to give their shop a well known image as they use a target customer and reveal what that customer thinks of Aldi and their prices. As well as this, within the advert we see the comparison of Aldi's version and the original and make it the audiences decision to decide whether they want to pay the extra pound or not by doing this they are appealing to those of the social spectrum who do not earn a lot of money and need to provide for their family within the money they can afford. The demographics of this advertisement would be specifically C - E as Aldi is quite a low end food market and has affordable products for the working class ideally. By doing this however they are broadening their capability of appealing to many demographics as they are just portraying their company as affordable to anyone. The psychographics of this advert would again be aimed at mainstreamers, due to their domestic nature and how they seek security. The only disadvantage of this advert would be that because they are comparing prices some audiences may prefer the higher brand. 

Series – A series advert is usually one which follows a story in each advert, it is a continued plot - it follows a progressive narrative over a long period of time shown within singular adverts. Occasionally this can last for many years. This is what we would call a series form, this follows a continuation of adverts that combine to tell a story whilst advertising a certain product. This creates a personal connection with the audience as you start to feel emotions towards the two characters - Adam and Jane- and begin to look forward to the next series advert, it began with them meeting to them getting married. This is a smart way to promote a product as it makes every demographic form an opinion about the advert and mark it as very memorable. The demographic of this advert would most likely be C and below as it generally aims towards the working class families and adults who are within the middle of their life supporting their family whilst trying to have a love life. It's relatable to those who find their significant other later in their lifes, as the advert supports this. The psychographics of this advert would be mainstreamers as they seek security as the advert blatantly shows and tends to be domestic. 

Stand alone- Most advertisements are stand alone ads which advertise a product or service and they do not link with any existing advertisements for the product or service the advertisement is providing. Within this advert above - the portrayal of cats wanting the milk with the humorous side of them having thumbs allows the product have a relation to many audiences. The overall idea of the cats being sneaky illuminates the nature of them as animals, however also promotes the advert as very stand alone and original depending on the influence cravendale milk can have. The demographics of this advert would ideally be C and below as it just portrays an every day life situation within an estate that most likely C demographics would live. As it represents graffiti on the walls it shows a society where it isn't priss and proper. The psychographics would be either mainstreamers or strugglers, as both categories are typically lower demographics.