Ad complaints expected to soar

01 November 2004

The ASA now handles complaints about radio and TV commercials

The Advertising Standards Authority’s one-stop shop for all advertising complaints opens for business today, marking the biggest change in advertising regulation for over 40 years. The ASA has been handed day-to-day responsibility for broadcast advertising matters by Ofcom - the statutory regulator for broadcasting. The ASA is expecting to receive up to 24,000 complaints in its first year of operation, compared with 14,277 complaints about non-broadcast advertisements in 2003. There were 9,082 complaints about radio and television ads in 2003.

The ASA’s Director-General Christopher Graham said the one-stop shop would make it much easier for members of the public to make complaints about advertising they find misleading or offensive: "More than 5,500 people have approached the ASA already this year wanting to object to a TV or radio commercial. Up until now we’ve had to turn them away. Today’s new start helps straighten out the regulatory maze and that’s good news for consumers and for advertisers, too."

To cope with the anticipated increase in its workload, the ASA has recruited extra staff and, consequently, is relocating to larger offices. From today, advertising complaints - which can be made via the ASA website or by fax, post and telephone (a first for non-broadcast advertising concerns) – will need to be directed to:

Under the new system, Ofcom will retain its overall responsibility for broadcast advertising regulation and will act as a legal backstop to enforce any ASA decisions on broadcast advertising matters. Ofcom will also remain responsible for final approval on changes to the broadcast advertising codes of practice. The Office of Fair Trading will continue to act as a legal backstop for the ASA on misleading non-broadcast advertising.