The Advertising Standards Authority has recently announced that from the 1st of March 2011 its remit will be extended to cover online marketing as well as marketing in the offline world.
This means that your business website and external online market campaigns (using social media like Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin) will be subject to the regulation of the Committee of Advertising Practice Code.
This is to ensure that businesses remain legal, decent and honest in all their marketing campaigns and advertisements, no matter the medium used to get the message to the audience.
The central principle for all marketing communications is that they should be legal, decent, honest and truthful. All marketing communications should be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and society and should reflect the spirit, not merely the letter, of the Code. (CAP Code (Section 1 – Compliance)
The CAP Code is thoroughly detailed and covers a wide range of areas. You should check to see which areas of the code might affect your business as there are sections covering everything from alcohol to distance selling and motoring.
Avoiding Misleading Advertising
Perhaps the main thing to take away from the upcoming changes is the focus against misleading advertising. Section 3 of the CAP code covers misleading advertising in detail. Broken down into a number of subsections, it includes guidance on obvious exaggerations (“puffery”), exaggerating the performance of a product, making false claims, marketing things as “free” and even making comparisons with competitors.
The CAP provide guidance services to help you ensure that your business meets the code. So with a little help and advice you can be sure that your advertising is in line with the legal requirements and you won’t be getting any unwanted attention from the ASA.
Of course, even big well-known businesses are not impervious to claims and judgments against them. Coca-Cola recently had one of their adverts banned for claiming their vitamin water is “nutritious” despite containing around 23grams of sugar per 500ml bottle. They tried to argue that the vitamin content of the water was significant enough to warrant the claim, but their plea was dismissed. This goes to show how careful businesses need to be when marketing their products.
Related Reading:
- ASA launches ad campaign to prepare business for new online marketing regulation
- Coca-Cola ad banned for claiming Vitamin Water is ‘nutritious’
- CAP Code
- CAP Services
- How to carry out a successful Drip Marketing Campaign
- Free Secrets to Marketing Success
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Marketing
- Social Media Marketing Important For Small Business
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