Magazine Monitor
28 July 2005
Alistair Taylor checks the ads in the daily newspapers
Stepping through the office doors, the first thing that greets us is an imposing stack of the day's papers. Dailies, weeklies, broadsheets and tabloids are stacked in a tower on our cabinet. The first part of any day is spent carefully leafing through the pages, checking more than 1,500 display advertisements and reader offers, looking for breaches of the CAP Code. Breaches can be anything from an exaggerated claim for an 'amazing' new hair restorative to missing price information.
After cutting out the ads, letters and emails are sent to all those advertisers who have breached the Code and the paper the ad has appeared in. The advertisers are asked to send an assurance that they'll pull the ad or have it changed.
By this stage, after a cup of coffee, the day's magazines will have landed with a thump on the cabinet and we'll start the monitoring process over again.
Throughout the morning calls will come in from advertisers about their ads. Some ask about how they should change their copy, others want to send in evidence. We answer their questions and encourage them to contact the CAP Copy Advice team for help in revising their ads.
As well as taking up problems, on any average day, we'll be juggling a range of projects and surveys. As I write this, we're looking at the advertising of food and phone package prices. We've just successfully wrapped up cases about the misleading advertising of flights as free when, in fact, taxes are payable, and the omission of clear prices in the advertising of mobile phone downloads. Coming thick and fast across the office will also be referrals from the ASA: concluded adjudications that need the advertisers chased for an assurance that the ad will be changed or withdrawn and public complaints that have already been investigated and upheld.
Also, we'll be taking action against those companies that refuse to play by the rules. We may send an Ad Alert to the media asking them to speak to the Copy Advice team before accepting some ads. In extreme cases, we can bring advertisers in for meetings or ultimately refer them to the Office of Fair Trading.
As the day ends, we'll file the papers and magazines and wait for the next day's delivery.