ASA received over 350 complaints over EU Referendum ads but says it can't regulate political marketing without cross-party support
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has received over 350 complaints about ads related to the EU referendum. Despite the rallying call for greater regulation of political advertising in the wake of the Brexit vote, the body has been forced to explain that it simply cannot do the job without the support of the major political parties (which at this time "don't want to subject themselves to the standards" it sets).
Several campaigns from both sides of the debates drew criticism from voters / EU REF ADS
The watchdog’s chief executive, Guy Parker, penned a blog post today (5 July) stating that while there’s “clearly a popular call for regulating political advertising,” the current regulatory system doesn’t stand a change of working for such campaigns without “the clear support of the majority of political players.”
In the lead up to the EU vote, both sides were criticised for their creative output, including fringe groups like Operation Black Vote and Leave.EU.
Parker pointed to an online petition calling for the establishment of an watchdog to monitor political campaigns. The project has drawn over 161,000 signature and counting, and Parker said that this, coupled with the complaints about referendum-related ads builds the case for a regulatory body for political ads. However, he said that it “cannot be the ASA” that does the job.
“On the one hand, the overwhelming majority of big commercial companies support the ASA. They might fight like tigers if we’re ruling against one of their specific ads, but our regulation of them without fear or favour co-exists more-or-less happily with their general buy-in of the system,” noted Parker.
“On the other,” he added, “the majority of the main political parties have said they don’t want to subject themselves to the standards they expect of companies.
“There are good practical reasons for the ASA not playing a role, but the clincher is this: for a self-/co-regulatory system like ours to stand a chance of working for political advertising, the starting point would have to be the clear support of the majority of political players."
While political advertising on broadcast media has always been banned, with the exception of party political broadcasts, non-broadcast political ads used to be subject to some of the ASA rules.
However, the part-in/part-out approach was deemed confusing, and following the 1997 election the Committee of Advertising Practice decided to exclude political campaigns from the ASA's remit.