1 in 3 Australians has recently seen advertising they found unacceptable: report
Ad Standards, Australia’s advertising complaints adjudicator, has released new research providing some insight into community perceptions of advertising and what Australians consider acceptable and unacceptable in advertising content.
The research, conducted in late 2021, shows that while Australians are happy seeing more inclusivity and diversity in advertising, 1 in 3 Australians has recently seen advertising they found unacceptable.
The real facts in this report…
Great to see the Ad Standards Board showing that the public want better management of diversity and inclusion, and these issues also show that stereotypes are at play. The big finding here is that “1 in 3 people think advertising is unacceptable” and that means the self-regulation system is actually failing us despite the positive spin in this article/release. 33% of the population is huge and then apply that to the harm in society that’s unacceptable to me.
Note that the survey actually shows in the answer to this question “I rarely see advertisements that I find unacceptable” as 51% which means that 49% not 33% find advertisements unacceptable.
The trouble with this survey is that they are asking what a biased community want; and that doesn’t always show the real problem under-lining our societal issues like domestic violence, bullying and mental health problems attributed to portrayal of stereotypes in media, marketing and advertising. The community is blind to the problem and therefore not necessarily equipped to answer direct research questioning like this.
This report is useful, but is candy-coating the bigger issues and missing the point. This is making the decision about what is considered harmful or what needs to be addressed based on a biased community and not being proactive at resolving the issues properly. Time to review the way this research is conducted so that is without a vested interest in the findings.
Findings that are NOT promoted in the press release and glossed over in this report:
– 49% of people find advertising they see unacceptable (not 33%)
– 55% find advertising is not in line with community standards
– 28% of people don’t want stereotypes in advertising (but a large percentage have unconscious bias and don’t even know what they are looking for so this can’t be complete and will only get worse if bias was measured as part of the research)
– 1 in 20 Australian’s have made a complaint about advertising but a majority of people who have complained come from certain well informed and educated sections of the community with an activist mindset, and is not necessarily open to those who are at the most risk of harm or don’t know what harm looks like yet
– 40 % of people don’t know about AdStandards and what they do
– 34% of people would complain about ads if they knew how/who to (and clearly are not informed)
– People find ads unacceptable in ways that the current code does not measure or control (also supports the number of cases the ASB rejects each year – over 1000)
– Men are less likely to complain about ads that don’t impact them but that doesn’t mean the harm isn’t there
Just making sure people read this study properly and start to really look at the role of self-regulation and the failings. With no ombudsman or government oversight the AANA is running the show here and it isn’t impartial. Just saying…
I find a lot of them more annoying than acceptable
The survey focussed on paras 2.1, 2.2, and 2.4 of the stds but not 2.3 Violence. A lot of scary trailers ( ads on TV) get complaints from parents whose children have been disturbed by them. They get dismissed because they are scary but not violent. The stds are deficient here and need to be remedied.