On Sunday I noticed that another batch of adjudications had appeared on the Advertising Standards Bureau website (they haven’t discovered RSS feeds yet, so you have to keep an eye out for them). It made for depressing reading as it demonstrated just how toothless the watchdog is when it comes to maverick advertisers.
The self regulation system may work for big advertisers, but those seeking notoriety can do so seemingly without facing consequences.
Take Wicked Campers, for instance. This firm hires vans to backpackers. Its low rent marketing strategy is based on being tacky. It extends from the messages on the vans to their ads.
The most recent complaints included an ad suggesting customers should “snog an aboriginal”, messages about gay sex painted on one of the vehicles and sexually suggestive images of animals.
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The problem for the ASB being twofold. First, the company changes its ads all the time. So every time, the ASB rules that it’s been in breach, it has already moved on to something similarly offensive.
But second, there are no sanctions the ASB can take anyway. And it’s obvious that the company knows it from the flippant tone of its responses to the watchdog suggesting that complainants have dirty minds.
While the fear of embarrassment is enough to self regulate major brands, for those seeking controversy, an ASB ruling only helps. When it ruled against an Advanced Medical Institute TV ad, the company’s PR agency emailed me a copy of the ad, in the hope I’d post it online. It’s not as if the ASB levies fines or any other tangible penalty.
Similarly, the ASB also found against the would-be producers of a movie about a man and woman auctioning their virginity. The offence came when they used an image of the Virgin Mary with a penis drawn on her forehead.
And although the ASB ruled against that, the image is still prominent on the company’s website.
And this is the big questions. When a brand doesn’t give a fuck, how can self regulation be effective? I’m not sure it can.
Tim Burrowes