ASA TV Broadcast Codes - PERSONAL DISTRESS

6.4 Personal distress

Advertisements must not, without good reason, contain material which is likely to cause serious distress to significant numbers of viewers

Notes:

(1) Any appeal to fear should be justified and proportionate. Only mild material is likely to be acceptable in demonstrating, for example, the risks in not buying life insurance. More disturbing material might be acceptable in, for example, road safety advertising. See also 8.2.11(a) (re Medicines etc) and 10.14 (re Doctrinal Advertising).

(2) Scenarios which might be distressing reminders of tragic personal experiences for significant numbers of viewers should be carefully judged. For example, at any given time, many viewers will be recently bereaved.

ASA TV Broadcast Codes - VIOLENCE AND CRUELTY

6.2 Violence and cruelty

(a) Advertisements must not encourage or condone violence or cruelty

(b) Gratuitous and realistic portrayals of cruel or irresponsible treatment of people or animals are not acceptable

Notes to 6.2:

(1) Careful judgements are needed in this area. ‘Theatrical’ violence (for example, the mayhem common in action/adventure films) is generally acceptable, as is violence which has a stylised ‘cartoon’ or slapstick quality. Problems are more likely to arise where the violence seems to take place in everyday life and to involve ordinary people. However, care should be taken to avoid giving young viewers the impression that copying wrestling, martial arts etc would be safe, harmless fun.

(2) Advertisements must not appear to condone people using violence or aggression to get their own way in everyday life.

(3) Jokes about or involving violence require care and will usually need to be distanced from everyday life by being, for example, in cartoon form.

(4) Scenes which would otherwise be inappropriate may be acceptable to the audience in, for example, charity advertising or newsreel footage in advertisements for news media.

(5) Timing restrictions are necessary for advertising featuring violence. See 7.4.6 (Distress) and 7.4.7 (Scheduling) below.

ASA TV Broadcast Codes - OFFENCE

6.1 Offence

Advertisements must not cause serious or widespread offence against generally accepted moral, social or cultural standards, or offend against public feeling

Notes:

(1) Although no list can be exhaustive, and values evolve over time, society has shared standards in areas such as:

(a) the portrayal of death, injury, violence (particularly sexual violence), cruelty or misfortune

(b) respect for the interests and dignity of minorities

(c) respect for spiritual beliefs, rites, sacred images etc

(d) sex and nudity, and the use of offensive language.

(2) The ASA does not judge cases simply, or even primarily, on the number of complaints received. It makes judgements about the likelihood of widespread offence as well as taking into account the possibility of deep, usually unintentional, offence to sections of the audience which have particular vulnerabilities.

(3) Particular circumstances can result in otherwise unobjectionable material causing offence. For example, a joke may cease to be acceptable if it seems to refer to a recent tragedy or if it appears close to a programme about a serious, related issue. On the other hand, if material might be on the edge of acceptability for a general audience but would be perfectly acceptable to, for example, young adults, careful scheduling in ‘youth’ programmes may be sufficient to avoid causing offence.
(4) Whilst commercials for media products such as CDs and videos must not mislead about their content, any extracts from the products should not cause offence.

ASA - Non-Broadcast Advertising Codes - CHILDREN

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/codes/cap_code/ShowCode.htm?clause_id=1731

CHILDREN

47.1 For the purposes of the Code, a child is someone under 16. The way in which children perceive and react to marketing communications is influenced by their age, experience and the context in which the message is delivered; marketing communications that are acceptable for young teenagers will not necessarily be acceptable for young children. The ASA will take these factors into account when assessing marketing communications.

47.2 Marketing communications addressed to, targeted at or featuring children should contain nothing that is likely to result in their physical, mental or moral harm:

c) they should not be shown using or in close proximity to dangerous substances or equipment without direct adult supervision. Examples include matches, petrol, certain medicines and household substances as well as certain electrical appliances and machinery, including agricultural equipment

ASA - Non-Broadcast Advertising Codes - FEAR AND DISTRESS

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/codes/cap_code/ShowCode.htm?clause_id=1506

FEAR AND DISTRESS

9.1 No marketing communication should cause fear or distress without good reason. Marketers should not use shocking claims or images merely to attract attention.

ASA - Non-Broadcast Advertising Codes - DECENCY

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/codes/cap_code/ShowCode.htm?clause_id=1496

DECENCY

(ie avoiding serious or widespread offence)

5.1 Marketing communications should contain nothing that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care should be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability. Compliance with the Code will be judged on the context, medium, audience, product and prevailing standards of decency.

5.2 Marketing communications may be distasteful without necessarily conflicting with 5.1 above. Marketers are urged to consider public sensitivities before using potentially offensive material.