Legal and ethical regulations

Legal and ethical regulations

Responsibilities of advertising campaigns

The advertiser needs to responsibly promote their product/brand.

The promoter has the following responsibilities when advertising on TV (audio-visual);

• Keep it religiously friendly - do not create a commercial which may have the potential to offend a certain person or people
• Use of vulgar language is not permitted
• Moral panic - if there is moral panic it must be relevant to the modern society
• Titillation - the use of titillation is acceptable as long as it is not offensive
• Target audience - the promotion must target a select audience

The promoter must also consider these ethical issues;
Is the commercial...

1. Sexist?
2. Racist?
3. A hate crime?
4. Family-friendly?
5. Does it involve alcohol or drugs?

Some commercials use "shock tactics" in order to portray a message such as showing the effects of;

• Alcohol
• Drugs
• Tobacco
• Pollution
• Greed

The shock tactics help the audience/viewer understand the negative effects of harmful products by showing the physical/mental damage that they are capable of - the aim is to discourage the viewer from using them.

Examples of shock tactics-

1. What the cluck?! KFC commercial (Wandsworth, London, UK)
2. Don't smoke NHS commercial (London, UK)
3. Think! commercial (Birmingham, UK)
4. Skittles commercial (Waco, TX, USA)

Another method of promotion is called "Celebrity Endorsement" or "Product Placement"

Examples of celebrity endorsement-

1. Kendall Jenner PepsiCo commercial (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
2. Jennifer Lawrence Dior commercial (Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, Mexico)
3. David Beckham Fragrance (London, UK)
4. Gary Linekar Walkers commercial (London, UK)