Asa Marketing

With the use of examples review current advertisements banned by the ASA. Critically analyse the rules imposed by the ASA, are they reflective of public demand.

ASA are the UK’s independent regulator of advertising in all media. They ensure that the ads being produced are legal, decent, honest and truthful by using the advertising codes and by seeing if the ads meet their regulations.

Referring to the L’Oreal foundation make up advertisements, ASA decided that it was socially responsible for them to ban the two ads as it was claimed to be misleading and dishonest. Many argued that L’Oreal used the tool of airbrushing in their images of Christy Turlington and Julia Roberts to enhance the perfection of their foundation cosmetic. However, L’Oreal did own up to the claim and admitted that within their Maybelline and Lancôme ad they did utilise the use of ‘post production techniques’, but they justified themselves by adding that the reason for using the tool of airbrushing was to ‘accurately illustrate the results’ This can have a huge impact on public demand, consumers are technically buying a product that doesn’t work the way it portrays in its ads, if the foundation products worked the way Maybelline and Lancôme claimed it did, there would be no need for L’Oreal to edit the images. But does this mean that there will be a fall in demand? Referring to figure 1, we see that in 2006 L’Oreal was ranked 359th, as the year goes on in 2007 the ranking rises as well as L’Oreal’s revenues and profit. However in 2008 which was after the ads were banned, L’Oreal’s ranking fell to 355 but nonetheless its revenues and profits were still increasing. Thus, even though L’Oreal’s reputation and ranking was effected, their revenue and profits were still favourable.

Figure 1-CNN’s Annual Ranking
|Year |Ranking |Revenues($ millions) |Profits($ millions) |
|2008 |355 |23,355 |3,635 |
|2007 |353 |19,811.1 |2,585.8 |
|2006 |359 |18,057.6 |2,450.7 |

The media can dominate a lot of people in terms of controlling people, for example, consumers want to have skin like Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington, so they are manipulated into thinking that if they buy this product they can potentially have flawless skin. However this is not the case, a lot of digital work has gone into these ads to manipulate people, but why do consumers still believe in these ads? In terms of the way consumers behave, they like to mimic the behaviour of other people, for instance, celebrities. So when people are falsely manipulated into buying these cosmetics, they are either going to buy this product and test it out for themselves or they aren’t genuinely aware whether the models have been airbrushed or not.

There have been many complaints made by Jo Swinson MP, she co founded the ‘Campaign for Body Confidence’ this also included a crusade against airbrushing. ASA agreed with her complaints and action was taken as both ads were banned. This can be a threat to other ads that have misled consumers; if companies don’t want their ads to be banned they should act socially responsible and not disobey the advertising codes. Swinson wants advertisements to ‘get back to reality’; however will this strategy attract the eye of consumers? Are they still going to be interested in the products? Well, going back to point of digital manipulation, L’Oreal would not need to do this if their foundation products worked properly. Ads like these can have an adverse impact on society making people more self conscious. Thus, no matter how well a product is portrayed in an advertisement; consumers are still willing to buy the cosmetic products that will seem to improve their appearance.

Furthermore, this wasn’t the only L’Oreal ad that ASA has banned for misleading customers. L’Oreal’s Telescopic mascara offers ‘up to 60% longer lashes’ however many have complained that the model in the ad, Penelope Cruz, was wearing false eyelashes. L’Oreal agreed that individual false lashes were used within the ad but to only fill in the gaps in between the natural eyelashes. As L’Oreal did not make it apparent to customers that the model was wearing false eyelashes, ASA consider this to be deceiving and dishonest and have therefore banned the ad. According to ASA Annual Report 2007 it states that all cosmetic advertisers are obligatory to incorporate disclaimers in its ads, explaining whether false eyelashes are being used.

L’Oreal has had many complaints about its products and the way they have been portrayed, resulting in ads being banned. There is no question that their reputation has declined; and whether or not their products work the way they are portrayed. With deceiving ads being produced will consumers still be loyal to L’Oreal? On one side, if L’Oreal start using natural and realistic models then customers may still be depend on L’Oreal. On the other hand, customers may instantly decide that the products do not work due to false advertising. Customers can easily change to other brands as it is a competitive market such as Revlon, Estee Lauder and etc, however, some customers are comfortable with the cosmetics they use and may find them reliable; therefore consumers find it difficult to use other brands.
Referring to the PEST analysis, within the politically factors the government have interfered with the ads of L’Oreal as the information content has disobeyed the rules imposed by ASA. This can illustrate to companies how serious inputting false information into ads is and the complications it could cause.

L’Oreal would need to consider how this would affect them economically, with loads of rivals in the market L’Oreal cannot afford to lose out on any sales. Especially when going through times of great hardship when the economical crisis hit, consumers are holding back on luxury spending. Therefore consumers have an opportunity cost to what they think is more important and necessary to them. In terms with L’Oreal, they need to be the one brand consumers cannot live without depending on the product.

Sociological

Technological

Referring to another ad banned by ASA, BT’s ‘instant internet’ ad has misled consumers over the speed of its broadband. Its competitors, Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk have complained that the ad does not meet the requirements that it says it should. This has a favourable impact on its rivals, as BT’s image and reputation of having a rapid broadband connection will no longer be a threat. Because of this incident of false advertising, potential consumers are more likely consider other public sector networks. However, will there be a decrease in demand from existing consumers? Well, it depends on whether the existing customers are willing to go through a strenuous process of leaving BT for a better service. Or it may be the case where this has not made an impact on existing customers and customers are satisfied with the level of service BT are already providing, thus BT are not loosing their existing customers.

Overall, ASA’s advertising codes are a way of protecting the public, so that they are not falsely mislead into buying immoral products and services. Adverts which breach the advertising codes will be pulled out or either not be shown to the public again or to be amended. By banning deceiving ads

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/aug/04/bt-instant-internet-asa

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11075066