AS1: Task 4: Regulation

Task 4: Regulation
Advertising has become extremely common in modern life, and it is the job of some companies to make sure that adverts being viewed by the general public are appropriate:
The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) is a self regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. They work to make sure all UK advertising is legal, honest, decent and truthful, however, they does not cover sponsorship, packaging, shop windows, telephone calls, fly-posting, private classified ads, statutory/public notes, press releases, political ads & online editorials. They focus on two specific criterion when deciding on whether an advert should be viewed by the public or not; whether the advert is inaccurate or misleading, and whether or not it may offend the viewers. They take their job very seriously, and a single complaint about any advert, could lead to a full blown formal investigation, which could then lead to the advert being taken down. In the year of 2011, more than 30,000 complaints were received about over 20,000 different adverts, 4,500 of which were deemed unsuitable, and therefore were either changed, or removed entirely.
Ofcom (The Office Of Communications) is the government approved regulation authority of the broadcasting industry in the United Kingdom, and possess a wide array of power over television, radio, and postal sectors, however when it comes to advertisements, they usually redirect you to the ASA.