Television Advertisement

Should Television Adverts be regulated?


Advertising plays an essential part in all market economies. It stimulates growth and innovation, encourages competition and increases consumer choice. It is a swift and efficient means of making consumers aware of product innovations and keeping them informed of the range, nature and quality of the products available to them. Advertising is an important element in maintaining or increasing market share and vital to the introduction of a new product or the improvement of an existing one.

To fulfil this important task, advertising must enjoy a high level of consumer trust and confidence; it must be legal, decent, honest and truthful. If consumers are misled by advertising, they will not buy again; if it offends them, they will not buy in the first place. Bad advertising, even though it may account for only a small percentage of the whole, will gradually undermine consumer confidence and all advertising will suffer. So it is in the interests of the advertising industry to ensure that advertising is properly regulated.

In this essay i will be exploring the reasons why i think television adverts should be regulated. I will be using both personal opinion. Advertising regulation refers to the laws and rules defining the ways in which products can be advertised in a particular region. Rules can define a wide number of different aspects, such as placement, timing and the content. In the United States, false advertising and health-related ads are regulated the most. This is due to the fact that false advertising is illegal according to the Federal Trade Commission. It is also unethical. Other kinds of unethical advertising are neither deceptive or illegeal; however, they offend moral principles. For example, an offensive advert is the "Antonio Federici" ice cream advert. It shows two males who look like they are about to kiss, wearing catholic priest robes. The reason this is offensive is about, it is two males displaying homosexual behaviour WHILST wearing clothes of a religion that frowns upon that sort of practice.

In my opinion i believe adverising should be regulated because some adverts out there which have hidden innuendos, are being shown before the 'WaterShed'. For example, the ' Flora' butter advert. In this advert we meet josh and his brother making breakfast for their parents' anniversary. They rush upstairs and burst open the door, however they instantly stop in their tracks and cover their eyes (and also the dog). Later you see the mother coming down stairs with messy hair and doing her robe. The advert doesnt say much except "She seemed quite good at it", this is the sexual innuendo which is shown/said in the advert. This advert should be regulated or changed because it is inappropriate to advertise butter in such a way. There are many other offensive adverts out there which are offensive to people, but yet the ASA miss those adverts and send them through.

In conclusion, i personally believe that adverts should be regulated because, they are meant to advertise products and there's ways to do that. You cannot have a billboard with a woman's chest wearing a bra only as an advertisement, and expect people to know what the advertisement is about. First of all it is offensive to women because their being shown as tools to use for advertising, and it is misleading because one would think that the advert is either for bras or breast implants.