UK Cap Codes

In what way should the UK CAP Codes (CAP/BCAP Codes) be reformed?
“The alcohol industry spends more than £800 million annually in the UK on promotion” (Cabinet Office, 2003). This is one example why the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) codes and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) codes are important in order to protect the vulnerable from this vast industry and maintain the public’s confidence in advertising. Consistent changes to our media and methods of communications has led to a dramatic impact on marketing methods and their extent thus requiring the codes to be consistently updated. It is possible to argue that the UK CAP codes have failed to keep up with these changes and need to be reformed especially when looking at alcohol advertising. The power, speed and volume of marketing communications has significantly increased in recent years and advertising now poses many challenging questions to its own regulations (alcoholconcern, 2011).
The CAP codes are a code of practice which govern non-broadcast and broadcast adverts, marketing communications and sales promotions. The aim of the UK CAP codes is to lay down the rules for all advertisers, agencies and media industries (CAP, 2013). The codes simply do not focus just on goods and services, but they also enforce regulations on marketing communications which promote causes and ideas, however the codes do not cover political advertising. The advertising industry has taken the view that a self-regulatory code is required in order to protect consumers, maintain the effectiveness in advertising, fill in the gaps where the law is non-existent and preserve consumer confidence in advertising. The CAP codes are extremely thorough but the general rules are that advertising must be responsible by not misleading the consumer, obey specific rules related to children and finally follow the rules relating to specific sectors such as alcohol, gambling, health and financial products.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is an independent body which investigate complaints about breaches of either code and monitors advertising. It is self-funded, as the Advertising Standards Authority which has a 0.1% levy on all advertising space. They are independent of the government and the advertising business, they ensure they act on all complaints checking the media and take action where necessary. If your complaint is unsuccessful with the ASA you are able to take it to the Director of Fair Trading at the Office of Fair Trading. There are also several other external bodies and government laws, which help uphold the codes but these are more common under the BCAP codes. Examples include that of Ofcom and the Financial Services and Markets Act (2005), which focuses on regulating financial advertising and gambling. Evidence suggests though that the system is very effective and with the codes being upheld by the ASA, consumers have confidence in advertising whilst being protected from advertising as well. This is clear as in March 2012 Nike’s “make it count” twitter campaign was banned by the ASA as it was claimed that Wayne Rooney and Jack Wilshere’s tweets were not clearly identified as marketing communications (Sweney, 2012). Another clear example of the ASA carrying out its role effectively was the banning of a protein shake advert which implied masturbation, it was banned due to potentially causing widespread offence, as well as with the advert being online it may be seen by a wider audience than just young men (Bennett, 2013). This advert was banned after just one complaint which shows the effectiveness of the ASA, also it shows how the ASA is looking to protect children from such adverts influencing them.

However we must remember for the codes to be effective they rely on people voluntarily taking part in the lengthy complaint process. In addition the codes are designed to protect the vulnerable, specifically children and it is unlikely that children are going to complain against the adverts due to a lack of knowledge of the system. Therefore due to this key limitation it does limit the effectiveness of the codes. One key example of the codes being ineffective is the high levels of alcohol brand recognition amongst those under 18 (Winpenny, 2012). This has resulted in the Youth Alcohol Advertising Council making complaints against many alcohol adverts, they argue that the whole review process raises concerns about the current regulations and control over alcohol advertising (alcoholconcern.org.uk, 2012). If we are to protect society as a whole then changes need to occur to the CAP codes, most importantly they must protect children more, as well as ensure stricter regulations against products which can have a detrimental effect on society such as alcohol and gambling. Marketing raises enormous ethical issues every day (Sutherland, 2010) and whilst the CAP codes may seem to very detailed and effective, there are too many inconsistencies. The codes do not go far enough in protecting British culture from modern day advertising. It is highly likely that its effects are going to be detrimental to our wellbeing; furthermore it may exacerbate our social and environmental problems. The CAP codes should go further in protecting our cultural values and recognise the negative impacts and effects of advertising on British society. David Cameron (2010) argues that marketing is warping the minds and bodies of children and harming their future. It is clear the UK CAP codes are failing to protect children, but I believe that the most important issue is the reform needed for alcohol advertising, as the industry is currently costing the UK £21 billion a year through healthcare costs and violence (alcoholconcern, 2011).
“The alcohol industry spends a lot of money to make drinking look sophisticated, fun and sexy. What it doesn’t show is the harm caused by alcohol” (drugfoundation.org.nz, 2013). Alcohol is seen as one of the key problem areas in advertising along with gambling and tobacco, due to their detrimental effects to their consumers. Whilst there have been serious reforms made to that of the tobacco advertising regulations, we have not seen the same for alcohol. Tobacco has seen a complete ban on advertising as well as plain packaging implemented, whilst there have been some steps taken in creating strict regulations for alcohol advertising these steps are not enough. Professor Gilmore (2009) puts forward the simplest argument in fixing this issue as he argues that by restricting access to alcohol advertising aimed at young people will protect them from the health issues related with alcohol misuse. Saffer (1991) who carried out studies on countries with alcohol bans, discovered that those with bans showed lower levels of alcohol abuse. Therefore I feel that the UK CAP/BCAP codes should be reformed to ban advertisements to any audience that may include children. This is what was proposed by a joint plea from 31 organisations including that of the British Medical Association in 2012, as they argue more should be done to protect children from alcohol marketing. Alcohol is a growing burden on society, costing 15,000 lives a year, it is clearly time for major reforms in the advertising of alcohol.
Firstly we must look at exactly how advertising works in order to understand what effects it has on consumers and its power. Advertising is traditionally viewed as being manipulative and persuasive, indeed the alcohol industry would not spend more than £800 million a year on advertising if it did not expect this to increase their sales (alcoholconcern, 2012). Williams (1980) argues that advertising is designed to attract and persuade potential customers through promotion, advertising convinces consumers to buy the product. Twitchell states that “We know them even if we haven’t seen them, because our culture has been built around them‟ (2000: 5), this clearly highlights the importance of advertising and its strength even though many people argue they ignore adverts and are not affected by them. It is argued that whilst they don’t directly affect us individually, they have an indirect effect on us collectively. For example Gibson (2005) claims that a resident of London will be exposed to 3,500 adverts in a day, now industries wouldn’t spend this much time and money on adverts and communicating their products if advertising was not extremely powerful. The power of the alcohol advertising industry is clear as Saffer (2004) shows that whilst the alcohol advertising to sales ratio is 9%, the average industry’s ratio for advertising to sales is 3%. Therefore advertising for alcohol has a strong relation to sales.
There are three key areas I will look into in order to evaluate why alcohol advertising should be reformed, the first is issue of alcohol advertising to children. Children are more exposed than adults to alcohol advertising and are in need of greater protection due to their vulnerability. The CAP and BCAP codes both state that “Advertisements for alcoholic drinks should not be targeted at people under 18 years of age and should not imply, condone or encourage immoderate, irresponsible or anti-social drinking”, however research has shown that alcohol advertising encourages young people to drink alcohol at an early age and in large quantities (Hastings et al., 2010). The regulations in place are so flawed that teenagers are exposed more than adults, as 10-15 year olds see 10% more alcohol advertising on TV in the UK than their parents do, and they see 50% more adverts for alcopops than their parents (Hastings & Sheron, 2013). The Government’s 2012 Alcohol Strategy confirmed a strong correlation between advertising and consumption of alcohol in young people (alcohol concern.org.uk, 2012). The evidence suggests that if we limit alcohol marketing this in turn would reduce drinking amongst young people, in turn this would protect the vulnerable and thus fulfilling one key aim of the CAP/BCAP codes. The codes are meant to protect the vulnerable and without a total ban it would be impossible to entirely prevent children and young people from being exposed to alcohol advertising. Responsible alcohol advertising is required and the advertising codes should be reformed so that any marketing that associates alcohol with people’s enjoyment of leisure activities should be banned due to the exposure and appeal to under 18’s (alcoholconcern, 2012). This could be sponsorship of sporting events such as that of Heineken’s sponsorship of the 2013 Football World Cup or cultural and music events. If just looking at the impact of TV advertising in the UK, children who saw alcohol commercials in a week rose by 19% to 3.2 adverts between 2007 and 2011 (Sweney, 2013). Furthermore Ofcom research concluded that of the most watched shows by 4-9 year olds, the X Factor was one of the top and under existing TV ad rules the show is able to carry alcohol advertising. Unfortunately TV advertising of alcohol impacting on children is only one small part of the issue. This issue is only going to be exacerbated due to digital advances, as marketers turn to social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, which are heavily used by the younger and arguably more vulnerable generation.
The second issue that I will focus on is how alcohol advertising is affecting UK society and the role that alcohol advertising has had in creating a binge drinking culture in the UK. Alcohol sponsors many of the major sports and cultural events in the UK, thus making alcohol extremely socially acceptable, as well as allowing them to advertise to almost anyone. The CAP codes need to reform their regulations in regards to this especially as the BCAP codes state that advertising that associates alcohol with a desirable ideology should be tightly regulated. I would argue this is not the case, for example take the WKD advert which encourages young people to bring out their “WKD side”. Furthermore Professor Gilmore (2009) states that in this country it has become impossible not to celebrate anything without alcohol. This is clear as students finish their exams they go out and drink large quantities of alcohol and at the other end of the spectrum at a work Christmas drinks it’s all about getting drunk for many of those involved. Alcohol advertising in the UK aims to market its products as sexy and providing its consumers with a good time. This is clear with the current Sourz advert which shows lots of young people having a good time in a nightclub all due to drinking shots of Sourz. This makes alcohol trendy, desirable and thus appeals to the consumer. Alcohol advertising in the UK is everywhere and has arguable spiraled out of control and is impossible to regulate it plays a huge part in sponsorship from Everton Football Club being sponsored by Thai Chang beer to Tennent’s Lager sponsoring major music events such as T in the Park. I think the UK CAP codes should therefore be reformed in order to ban any form of sports, cultural and music events as whilst they are currently promoting the normalization of drinking in society (alcoholconcern, 2012) but also having a negative effect on children. This would follow behind other countries like France who have done so already and seen success in doing so.
The final area is alcohol advertising online. In recent years with the advances of digital technology marketing has moved online and controls have failed to keep up with this in particular reference to social media. The first issue is that the CAP code in terms of online alcohol are weak and only address marketing communication that deals with the supply and transfer of good and services (ASA, 2013). This has left other content such as blogs to be outside the CAP Code remit and thus allowing alcohol advertising to have the license to do nearly anything it likes. The issue of this was clearly raised when a YAAC complaint about video clips posted by the Sourz website, were deemed outside of the jurisdiction of the codes despite the advert appealing to young people. Further to this the ASA limits its investigations into social media content to that uploaded within the last 3 months and again this has raised issues for example with the Fosters advert posted on their Facebook page (alcoholconcern, 2012). The advert suggested that Foster’s would enhance social status and helped you relax, however the advert was not investigated by the ASA due to it being older than 3 months. It can be argued that a complete ban should be introduced to advertising online due to the vastness of the internet and the problems it causes when trying to regulate alcohol advertising.
Having highlighted the serious effects of alcohol to society and the issues the CAP codes currently have in dealing with the negative effects caused on UK society due to the success of alcohol advertising, I will now put forward what reforms I feel should occur to the UK CAP codes. My proposals draw on France’s Loi Evin approach (alcoholconcern, 2013). Firstly that the codes should limit the channels of promotion, this means that alcohol sponsorship and branded products or merchandise is not allowed. This has proved effective already as shown with the removal of tobacco sponsorship from Formula One (alcoholconcern, 2013). This can also been seen in cinemas for example restricting all alcohol films to those only with an 18 classification. Secondly alcohol advertising should be limited to images and messages that relate to the basic characteristics of the product such as strength or origin and on top of this they should be accompanied by a clear health message. This should help reduce the sexy nature of alcohol advertising which is currently seen in the UK and should in turn see a reduction in the negative effects on alcohol advertising to children. According to the ASA in 2009 99.7% of alcohol advertising was compliant however do those responsible for monitoring the regulations understand the implications if children were or are exposed to the content. Finally the strength of the ASA should be increased. It needs more pro-active methods in monitoring advertising and not just relying on current methods. Advertising self-regulation so far has proven to be insufficient (Hastings et al., 2010) especially with modern advertising practices that make use of digital and internet advertising allowing many adverts to go under the radar. Therefore if the regulator is to have more power, it needs to be allowed to implement sanctions and meaningful fines. Furthermore the ASA is not very representative and the council is represented very much by white middle class males (ASA, 2013), which is very unrepresentative of the consumers it is meant to be protecting and thus may reduce the effectiveness of the ASA.

In conclusion it is clear that there is some need for reforms of the UK CAP codes as they are failing to fulfil their current goals. Whilst many would argue for a full ban on alcohol advertising, I feel that this would not be realistic. Therefore I propose that we should reform the CAP codes to have the same restrictions as that of in France as argued earlier. Once these are implemented research could be undertaken to see if what impacts the reforms have had and then look at whether any further reform is required.

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