News: Complaints at all-time high, reports ASA

Complaints about advertising and other marketing campaigns reached an all-time high last year, according to the Advertising Standards Authority’s annual report.

The number of different campaigns complained about increased by nearly 10 per cent year on year to 14,080, with the number of actual complaints up eight per cent to 24,192.

Overall, non-broadcast media, including direct marketing and other promotional media channels, attracted more objections, with a total of 13,507 complaints about 11,441 campaigns. This represents growth of just 0.4 per cent year on year.

Complaints about environmental claims more than doubled year on year, with 556 complaints about 408 ads, as brands increasingly sought to promote their “green” credentials.

TV was by far the most complained about medium, generating 9,915 complaints. Significantly, internet advertising was the most complained about non-broadcast medium and the second most complained about medium overall. A total of 2,980 complaints were received about internet advertising, 2,144 of which related to the content of websites and as such were outside the ASA’s remit. The most common issues raised by the public about internet content were pricing, availability of goods and charges.

Misleadingness accounted for nearly half of all complaints received, but offensiveness was the main reason for complaints about broadcast advertising.

Launching the Annual Report, ASA chairman Lord Smith (pictured) said that his first year in post had been the ASA’s busiest ever with a record number of ads changed or withdrawn. But he warned that the rising number of complaints about internet content posed a challenge to the self-regulatory system.

“These complaints are almost entirely about truth, accuracy, misleadingness and availability – the ‘meat and drink’ of the ASA’s daily work,“ he said. “We hope for an early outcome to the detailed discussions under way within the industry on the development of ways to ensure continued responsibility in advertising in new media settings.”

The ASA’s report also included a review of the work of the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP). Its chairman, Andrew Brown, said work was under way on the Code Review encompassing all the codes, including those covering sales promotion. “Both non-broadcast and broadcast codes will be the subject of a full public consultation later this year before their final form is agreed and put into place in 2009,” he said. “CAP and BCAP [the broadcast committee] will invite submissions from a broad range of advertising stakeholders and welcome written responses.”