ASA Report Reveals Advertising No-Go Areas

Research carried out by the Advertising Standards Association has revealed that there are three no-go areas for advertisers: death, religion and bad language. According to independent research carried out by the ASA to gauge public reaction to what causes offence in advertisements, 75% of people felt that disrespectful references to any religion, race or culture should never be allowed and 71% felt that bad language or rude gestures were unacceptable. However, 70% also agreed that advertising should be taken “with a pinch of salt”.

Overall however, public reactions to press and poster advertising generally were positive with most people claiming to feel amused or entertained (74%) followed by those who felt educated or informed by advertising (63%). Critical reactions were less widespread but 48% claimed that they sometimes felt irritated or annoyed and 35% that they were sometimes embarrassed or made to feel uncomfortable.

The main cause of claimed offence was the effect of advertising on children: being a bad example to children (16%), disturbing or unsuitable for children (14%), featuring bad language (13%) or appearing in the wrong place where children could see it (13%). These were closely followed by offence on the grounds of bad taste (12%), sexual explicitness (12%), violence (11%) and the portrayal of women (10%). Advertisements that were sexually explicit were the most likely to make people embarrassed or uncomfortable.

In relation to the portrayal of women and men in advertisements, more offence was caused when women were portrayed as sex objects; 64% of respondents claimed to be very or mildly offended. 27% claimed to be very offended by the extent to which women are portrayed as needing to look slim and attractive.

Stereotyping of women’s roles caused more concern when the jobs were low status, traditionally female roles; 27% found this very offensive compared to only 8% being offended by women being portrayed in traditional female roles in the home. Showing men as sex objects was very offensive to 15% of those interviewed. These findings show that the portrayal of the sexes in advertising and particularly of women remains a significant cause of offence.

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