6. What I have learnt about industry in relation to television, print or radio advertising and how I intend to use this knowledge and understanding to ensure my production is appropriate to the media industry context of the set brief I have chosen.

When making a TV advert, I must follow the rules and regulations to be able to have an appropriate advertisement. During my research, I found that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the company responsible for this. Its role is to "regulate the content of advertisement, sales and promotion and direct marketing in the UK.". This can be found on the official ASA website here.

The following codes and rulings are some of the few that I had to take into consideration whilst planning for my TV advert:

• Misleading advertising 3.12: "Advertisements must not mislead by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product or service." 
• Misleading advertising 3.4: "Obvious exaggerations ("puffery") and claims that the average consumer who sees the advertisement is unlikely to take literally are allowed provided they do not materially mislead."
• Harm and offence 4.13: ​"Advertisements must not portray or represent anyone who is, or seems to be, under 18 in a sexual way. However, this rule does not apply to advertisements whose principal function is to promote the welfare of, or to prevent harm to, under-18's, provided any sexual portrayal or representation is not excessive."
• Privacy 6.1: "With limited exceptions, living persons must not be featured, caricatured or referred to in advertisements without their permission. Exceptions are made only for brief and incidental appearances, such as crowd scenes, and advertisements that refer to a person featured in publications, programmes, films and the like, providing that the reference to or portrayal of that person is neither offensive nor defamatory."

Despite having out these rules in place, there are still adverts that breach these rules and codes which in turn lead to the adverts being banned. For example, even well know brands such as Axe have produced controversial and banned adverts like the Axe "Touch" commercial, which was release in 2004. The advert was banned due to over sexualization of woman therefore infringing the Harm and Offense 4.13 code. Within the advert, we can see that as the male character opens the book, this leads to the woman's button being undone therefore revealing a lot of cleavage so it is deemed inappropriate as a TV advert.

Another more recent example of an advert that does not follow the ASA codes and convention, despite not being a deodorant advert is the Rimmel London mascara advert featuring Cara Delevingne. In this case, it breaches the Misleading Advertisement 3.12 and 3.4 code where the advert misleadingly exaggerated the product’s effect through the use of post-production treatment by airbrushing, which makes the eyelashes look bolder than its capabilities. Within the advert we are able to see ECU of her eyelashes which seem to be very bold therefore making the audience think that they are buying an exceptionally good product due to what is displayed on the screen. After purchasing the product, due to the extreme exaggeration of the effect, the audience's expectations will not be met, therefore being disappointed with the product and would've wasted money.

There are also many adverts that follow the rules and codes that are set by the ASA and turned out to be successful. Big brands such as Lynx, Dove, Nivea and many more do this well and therefore are able to advertise their products effectively whilst following the rules. A good example is the Lynx Soulmate advert where it follows all the rules and codes. For example it does not over sexualize anyone nor does it exaggerate the capabilities of the product. It has also not faced much problems in social media and therefore has no chance of being banned.

After researching the codes and rules of the ASA, this made me more aware of my representations in my own advert so that I do not break any rules. For example, I plan on having a female character that has exited the shower but is wrapped in towels so not revealing many body parts. Additionally, there is also no intention on having the female strike any sexual pose or gestures so will not breach the Harm and Offense 4.13 code. Furthermore in my advert, I have already asked for the character's permission to be featured in the advert with exception of the crowd scenes as I have some public shots. This therefore will not breach the Privacy 6.1 code.


E4:

Due to the fact that the advert will be featured on prime time E4 (7pm-9pm), I will also have to
appeal to their target audience. Conveniently, the viewers are predominantly between the ages of 16-24 year olds. The popular shows featured on E4 are usually romantic dramas, such as Melissa and Joey or How I Met your Mother. I therefore made the storyline of my advert also like a romantic drams, such as having the characters experience a "first-date" scenario, which therefore also appeals to the demographics of E4. Whilst appealing to the similar target audience, it also conveys the brand identity of active, youthful and unisex.

Scene from How I met Your Mother

Copyright:

Additionally, having selected appropriate soundtracks for both my adverts, I had to made sure that it does not break any copyright laws. Hence having to adhere by the following rules:

• All rights have expired ( If the composer is dead, and the piece of music is over 75 years old or choosing a song that is over 100 years old after the date that the track was officially released.)
• The authors have explicitly put a work into the public domain
• There were never any copyrights. 

Having taken all this into account, I have decided to choose my songs from Audio Library, which is a channel that "publishes free music for commercial purposes".  The songs that I have chosen are; Control- High Rule and Happy Life- FREDJI.