Life at the ASA

If you want a fast-paced working environment in which you’ll cover a full range of advertising products and services, whilst communicating with members of the public and advertisers, the Complaints team is the place to be.

You could be negotiating an amendment for a misleading claim made on an advertiser’s website, or you might be assessing whether or not a TV ad is offensive. You’ll look into subjects that you’d never even considered before and have great fun doing it.

As well as managing your own caseload, you’ll also have the opportunity to take on a specialism in a specific sector, such as alcohol or gambling, contribute to project work which helps the ASA understand what matters to consumers, society and industry. No two days are the same.

If we decide that a complaint merits further investigation, it is the Investigations Executive’s job to contact the advertiser and explain the details of the complaint and what we need from them. That may include evidence to support their claims, or an explanation of why they think the ad is acceptable under the Code rules.

An Investigations Executive’s time is taken up with assessing these responses, which can involve a large amount of technical evidence. We then write a recommendation to the ASA Council on whether or not the complaint should be upheld based on the requirements of the Code and previous decisions on similar issues. The role offers a lot of variety in terms of the types of advertisers you will deal with, and requires strong organisation skills to balance administration of the more frequent and easily-resolved queries with the in-depth analytical work of formally investigated cases.

As Executives become more confident in their case-handling they tend to combine it with proactive project work, focussing on broader advertising issues. 

The best thing about Copy Advice is that no two days are the same.

We spend a lot of our time giving one-to-one bespoke advice to advertisers, agencies, and media owners about whether non-broadcast ads are likely to breach the CAP Code. One moment we could be assessing a poster to decide if it is too sexy to appear at a bus stop; and the next, we might be advising on whether an advertiser is able to make health claims for a new food product.

Another aspect of our role is writing guidance and providing training to help the industry understand how the CAP Code is interpreted by the ASA – this allows us to help many more advertisers ensure their ads are compliant.

In Compliance, we get to work with people in all areas of our organisation.

From discussing issues with colleagues who deal with incoming complaints, working with the Investigations team to decide how to best deal with advertisers, and working with the Communications team to share the work we do.

We tend to specialise in particular sectors and there are opportunities to gain expertise, like getting out to meet advertisers or working with trade bodies and other regulators. The role provides a good deal of autonomy to help improve compliance with our Codes, increase awareness of CAP, and develop sanctions which ensure we’re an effective regulator.

The ASA/CAP strength lies in its staff: my colleagues are supportive, friendly and always keen to share the wealth of experience and knowledge which exists across the company.

Life in the Communications team is as varied, interesting and dynamic as the advertising industry the ASA regulates. There’s never a dull moment.

Whether we’re responding to concerns about the impact of advertising on young people, defending the strength of the rules and our work or developing new policies, our team plays an important role in communicating who we are, what we do and why.

By raising awareness of the advertising rules and the effectiveness of our work in keeping standards high, we aim to reassure consumers that advertising in the UK is responsible. We also work to ensure that the advertising industry is aware of the rules and knows where to go to get help and advice in getting its ads right.

As a team, we work closely on a range of announcements, publications, events, research, media relations, public affairs activity and of course ASA’s own advertising campaigns. We’re responsible for the ASA's website, promoting our training and advice resources, as well as generating our Annual Report.

Every day is different and there’s always a new, interesting and often high-profile challenge to meet. Advertising gets people talking and, as a team, we get to enjoy being part of and shaping the debate.