Research- Controlling advertising

A commonly used acronym to describe the purpose of advertisements is DRIP:
D - differentiate a company’s products from those of their competitors.
R - Reassure and remind consumers of the benefits of the products or services.
I - inform people about an advertiser’s products, services or cause.
P – Persuade people that they should believe what they see in the ad and to take action in light of it.

The ASA
The rules are used by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to judge whether advertisements are legal, decent, honest and truthful. Called the CAP Code, the rulebook is written by the advertising industry itself, through an organisation called the Committee of Advertising Practice or CAP for short. CAP believes that self-imposed rules are necessary so that consumers can trust the advertisements they see; if they believe ads shoppers will be more willing to buy the goods and services being advertised. If a product or service does not live up to the claims made about it in an advertisement, consumers may not buy that product or service again. The experience may also make the consumers doubt the trustworthiness of all advertising.
The ASA began applying the CAP Code over forty years ago, in 1962 - the same year the Cuban Missile Crisis took place and the first satellite for broadcasting TV, Telstar, was launched. The Code has been revised regularly since then to keep it up to date with changes in advertising techniques. When the Code was first launched, for example, the technique of sending advertising messages to consumers through the post, known as direct mail, had only just started. Now consumers can receive advertising messages directly to their computers or mobile phones by e-mail and SMS text message. The latest edition of the Code reflects these advances in technology. So as well as advertisements in traditional media, such as the cinema, newspapers, magazines and posters, the Code now also covers banner ads and pop-ups on the Internet, commercial e-mails and text messages and new forms of outdoor media such as moving image posters, often seen at major rail stations.

The main principles of the Code are:
- All marketing communications should be legal, decent, honest and truthful
- All marketing communications should be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and society
- All marketing communications should respect the principles of fair competition generally accepted in business
- No marketing communication should bring advertising into disrepute.

To ensure consumers are not misled by advertisements, advertisers should meet these particular rules in the CAP Code:

Honesty
Marketers should not exploit the credulity, lack of knowledge or inexperience of consumers.

Truthfulness
No marketing communication should mislead, or be likely to mislead, by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise.

Principles
All marketing communications should be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society.

Fear and Distress
No marketing communication should cause fear or distress without good reason. Marketers should not use shocking claims or images merely to attract attention.
Marketers may use an appeal to fear to encourage prudent behaviour or to discourage dangerous or ill-advised actions; the fear likely to be aroused should not be disproportionate to the risk.

Safety
Marketing communications should not condone or encourage unsafe practices. Particular care should be taken with marketing communications addressed to or depicting children.
Consumers should not be encouraged to drink and drive. Marketing communications should, where appropriate, include a prominent warning on the dangers of drinking and driving and should not suggest that the effects of drinking alcohol can be masked.

Violence and Anti-social behaviour
Marketing communications should contain nothing that condones or is likely to provoke violence or anti-social behaviour.