Blog Post 3: The ASA BCAP Code

It was important for me to research this as it allowed me to recognise the rules that all adverts have to follow, which aided me in designing my own advert.

The ASA BCAP code is a series of rules and regulations for companies to consider when adverts are being created. Before any advert is put on air it needs to be checked against these guidelines in order to stop any damage being done to the audience. There are 32 sections in the BCAP code by the ASA, but only 10 of these relate to advertisement including take-away food delivery Services. The target audience for our adverts is people of age 16-25. As part of this audience is under 18, I needed to take into account the use of alcohol in the 2 adverts, and prohibit this as it is against the code to advertise alcohol to those under 18. Another code is that adverts should not condone excessive consumption of food. With my adverts in order to stay by this rule I had to take into account the quantity of food ordered by the characters, and make sure this wasn't deemed as excessive. Another code I had to take abide by was to be socially responsible when representing cars in the advert. I chose to not include cars in both of my adverts, but if I did I would need to make sure no one underage was driving, and that they were abiding by the speed limit without any reckless driving.

An example of an advert that has not abided with these rules that has been banned is one by Vodafone. They made claims in the advert they were not able to upkeep, and as a result the advert was banned for being misleading.

This was particularly useful to me as in the design process for both the adverts, I needed to make sure I wasn't condoning poor nutritional habits in the advert, which would have resulted in the advert being banned.