Jaguar’s ad, The Art of Villainy (pictured above), was banned by the ASA earlier this year.
30,000 complaints are made to the Advertising Standards Authority each year in the UK, and 1,000 rulings are made. As consumers become increasingly reactive to advertising, what impact, if any, is regulation having on creative?
Speaking at Mindshare’s 2014 Huddle event on Thursday, the ASA’s chief executive, Guy Parker, said that rather than stifling campaign freedom, regulation is forcing advertisers to be more creative.
“Creativity is provoked by constraints,” Parker said. “If you’re given a completely open brief, whether you’re an advertiser or a composer – whatever creative field you’re in – then it can lead to dissembling or chaos.”
Of the 30,000 complaints that the regulator receives, Parker revealed that 75% are turned away.
“We do a lot of pushing back,” he said, “and we spend a huge amount of time defending advertising self-regulation in the face of really big challenges.”
Brian Cooper, a creative partner at digital agency Dare, encouraged creatives to “think as madly as possible” and worry about regulation later.
“The last thing you want to do is stop creative,” he said. “I always start from not thinking about the regulation hang-ups, not thinking about client hang-ups, not thinking about any hang-ups, because you can’t get to a good creative solution when you’re worried about something.
“You need to be free. And once you’ve got your solution, you start to work back from that.”
Cooper said that while there are obvious no-go areas when it comes to advertising, it is often the more dangerous creative ideas that produce the best results.
“Dangerous creative usually sits on the boundary, but also has a habit of standing out, getting noticed and engaging with people, which then increases brand awareness,” he said.
“When you’re on the boundary, that’s when you push it.”
However, both Parker and Cooper agreed that there is a mismatch between what is currently deemed acceptable in broadcast TV versus the advertising within its commercial breaks.
“When you get into the boundaries of taste and what’s acceptable in advertising, and then you see what’s actually in the programme that the ad’s going in, and [the ad] can’t go as far as that, that becomes very questionable,” said Cooper.
“Part of the reason I like online is that the advertising content is usually in the same cultural space, in terms of taste, as the content that’s online – so it’s much easier to appeal and be relevant to the consumers.
“Taste is a very tricky issue and that’s where it becomes hardest for me.”
