Halloween and Firework Night are just around the corner! Whilst the spooktacular celebrations are to be enjoyed, there are a few regulatory goblins to be wary of.
Ensure your campaigns are both terrifyingly effective and creepily compliant by feasting your eyes on our spell-binding advice.
Sparkle with care
Care should be taken to ensure that fireworks are not depicted as being handled irresponsibly. Whilst the fireworks in this Levi jeans ad were intended to be hand-held, the ASA ruled that the ad nevertheless condoned and encouraged an unsafe practice.
Also bear in mind that fireworks being handled alongside alcohol consumption is most likely to be considered a recipe for a real fright night and considered irresponsible.
Trick or Treat and Target safely
Whilst this is the season for a little fright and scare, a cauldron full of fear and distress may be justifiable when making a point about safety. However, if the fear and distress become monster-sized, it may pose a problem. So, whilst nightmares might be usual for the season, consider the levels of realism and gore in your ads. A poster on the London overground for a live zombie experience was considered potentially distressing for young children, and was therefore deemed unsuitable in an untargeted medium.
A YouTube ad for mobile network giffgaff, which included horror relating characters, was considered problematic as the appropriate steps the advertiser took to target an adult audience were not enough to mask them from children.
However, it’s possible to create a chilling ad that doesn’t go too far, such as this poster seen on the side of buses featuring a scruffy, smiling clown doll.
Dressed to distress
Ensure ads for Halloween costumes don’t get caught in a regulatory web by avoiding referencing mental illness in a way which is likely to cause offence by reinforcing negative stereotypes.
There are occasions where the ASA conclude that an ad isn’t a breach of the rules. One such ad involved a “Psycho Clown” costume.
However a “Skitzo” costume was considered to cause offence by reinforcing negative stereotypes about mental illness.
Fangs for the sugar
Marketing HFSS (High in Fat, Salt, and Sugar) foods to children is firmly in the no-fly zone, even for witches on broomsticks. Strict rules are in place to keep these tempting goodies masked from an under 16’s audience. So, before you cook up your next campaign, be sure to review the latest ‘Age-restricted Ads Online’ guidance. Stick to the rules and your ads won’t come back to bite, in the form of an ASA ruling!
AI or die…
Whether your campaigns are put together by a machine or made the old-fashioned way, the same rules apply – what matters is how the audience interprets it. So remember that your AI- generated content still falls under the ASA’s watchful (and very much alive) regulatory gaze.
Knock..knock…we’re there
No matter the season, the Copy Advice team are here to assist you with keeping your campaigns from turning into a compliance nightmare, providing bespoke advice on your non-broadcast ads.
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