Mumbrella hangout with Ad Standards Bureau CEO Fiona Jolly
Ad Standards Bureau (ASB) CEO Fiona Jolly joined Mumbrella for a video hangout where she talked about a number of issues affecting the advertising regulator, and the question of whether self-regulation is strong enough for the industry to adhere to community standards.
Part of the industry’s self-regulation system, the ASB exists “so that that the community, industry and government have confidence in, and respect the advertising self-regulatory system and are assured that the general standards of advertising are in line with community values”, the ASB’s website asserts.
During the hangourt Jolly covered a range of topics including the scope and remit of the ASB, why certain ads or parts of ads are deemed offensive while others aren’t, how the board comes to make decisions, and whether the board needs more regulatory teeth to tackle advertisers which do not adhere to their rulings.
Recently the ASB has been under pressure from groups including Collective Shout which argues self-regulation isn’t working, as well as some large advertisers which have had ads ruled against and those not complying with its findings.
Jolly talked about Wicked Campers, which has had 14 upheld complaints against them this year alone yet continue to ignore the ASB’s rulings, saying the board is working with the Queensland Government to put in place “regulatory backstops” to go after advertisers who will not adhere to the rulings.
She also explained how the board can rule on the content of an outdoor ad, but not where it is placed.
Jolly was interviewed in the studio by Alex Hayes, with Steve Jones taking questions via the comment thread and social media.
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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I am annoyed at having to protest and write submissions EVERY time the standards are breached. Why should big business break the standard and only change tack when rank and file community protests. Why isn’t the standard classified as G? Please protect our children and families . Be responsible
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I have strong concerns about the filter applied to advertisements such as the coffee one “the sexual innuendo would not be clear to a younger audience”. Children as young as 9 and 10 are starting their early progression into puberty. They experience feelings in response to pictures of women and men in limited clothing or in provocative poses when shown on television, or in shopfronts, magazines etc. they don’t have the world knowledge to understand what they are experiencing; however, they are creating neural pathways in response to new information as they are exposed to it. I don’t understand how, with all the research about developing brains as well as neuroplasticity, the ASB can be naive about sexual innuendos or even think adults want to see such adds. Please take the time to talk with child development specialists and neuroscientists to discuss and research further as well as talk with the adult community at large – the current advertising standards are having a negative impact on society.
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Police Commissioner Ken Lay states “Labelling women as objects and actively promoting the degredation of women degrades the dignity of our whole community.” The ASB continues to dismiss complaints about advertising that does exactly this. When will the ASB start upholding the community standard that women be treated with dignity in advertising?
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The House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiry into the regulation of billboard and outdoor advertising in 2011 made various recommendations. Recommendations 4 and 8, related to issues of objectification of women as forms of discriminatory practice.
The ASB’s view, as cited in the report, is that objectification of women is not seen as contrary to the prohibitions on discrimination and vilification. How can the ASB justify this, and does the ASB have any plans to reevaluate its stance on sexual objectification?
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In the past, the ASB has dismissed complaints regarding porn-inspired sex industry advertising, on the basis that sexualised and objectifying content is “relevant to the product”, or “not inappropriate in context of a window display of an adult sex shop”, or in an area with “a high proportion of sex shops” deemed an “adult area”, despite being in the public space, including main streets and outside schools.
Given criticisms from child health professionals and even the Australian Medical Association for ‘failing to protect children’, what steps is the ASB putting in place to ensure that public spaces are safe for everybody?
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Surely there are people in these companies that are willing and able to stand up and demand better standards from the organizations that they work in. There must be a person of moral strength that can say there is a better way to do business. Try to be that person.
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I’d like to know why they pass the buck back to the complainant when rulings are upheld but not complied with. Surely it is their job to contact the council etc, rather than toothlessly saying they have done all they can. Does Ms Jolly think they need more power to enforce compliance?
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I’d like to know why they pass the buck back to the complainant when rulings are upheld but not complied with. Surely it is their job to contact the council etc, rather than toothlessly saying they have done all they can. Does she think they need more power to enforce compliance?
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Why does the Ad Standards Board refuse to consider a complaint if the company ‘voluntarily’ withdraws the ad, even when the ad has been publicised for several weeks? Why would a determination on whether the ad breaches the code not set a ‘meaningful precedent.’ ?
I refer to this sent to me by the Ad Standards Board:
“Further, the advertiser has indicated that the advertisement will not be broadcast again in that medium. With formal confirmation that the advertisement will not be broadcast again, we consider that the advertisement does not raise issues that would set a meaningful precedent were the Board to consider your complaint. Accordingly your complaint about the advertisement will not be considered by the Board.”
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When it comes to ads that objectify women I think many people wonder what kind of standards the ASB has. Given the standard of advertisements that are “allowable” the ones that are not allowed must be truly atrocious. Can you justify, please, why self regulation is good enough for advertising standards, and for the taxpayers that fund your organisation; and what you are doing, personally, to lift your standards because, for me if I’m looking at an advertisement that features two women with extremely low cut tops (with their breasts practically spilling out), and holding beers alongside a very happy man and a plate of food on the table – the actual product is the food ( in this case bbq ribs) that wakes up less than 10% of the advertisement space I cannot immediately identify the product.
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Dear Fiona Jolly,
This is absolutely ridiculous! How much more sexualised can an ad be? A young woman soaked to the skin, arching her back in a suggestive way, with words that clearly indicate sexual excitement and activity. For coffee beans? And all Ad standards can say is that this wouldn’t be recognised by younger viewers? It’s not just them I’m concerned about. I’m concerned about the thousands upon thousands of men who see this ad as yet another titillation, yet another encouragement to view women as noting more than sex objects. No, my 12-year-old daughter wouldn’t get the sexual implications, thank God – but she does see what men do when they see ads like this. They stare, and stare, and stare. She’s noticed it, and commented to me about it.
The ABS is failing in its pledge to be an organisation that the community has confidence in, although I’m sure the advertising industry is delighted. Industry self-regulation does not work. There is example upon tired example every day. Get some teeth, ASB. Please.
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Oh I gave up giving this bunch of obvious, clueless clowns the time of day years ago. Even if they had any real power to do anything, and uphold complaints,they as a collective are so impotent that the damage is always long done before they’ve put their brains in gear!
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Your “overly sexualised” opinion… I’m sorry but we do not need any sexualised advertising in public.
I think we need an independant watchdog on your organisation. advertising knows that you are lax on your “standards”.
Public advertising needs to be appropriate for all of the public to see without becoming uncomfortable.
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Fiona Jolly why don’t you hire Melinda Tankard Reist on the ASB board? I think Collective Shout is doing the ASB’s job better than the ASB.
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I do not want to see this highly sexualised add and I certainly do not want my 7yo daughter to see this add.
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There is no coffee is the sex-based ad depicting a woman with her mouth open and her back arched and her soaked shirt sticking to her breast. There is no coffee in that photo. The verbs are intended to imply sex, the photo is intended to titilate, and there is no coffee in the photo. Yet you found no problem?
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How can the ASB claim that self-regulation is working, when clearly, it does not?
I mean, when many people complain about a specific ad (such as the reccent ‘coffee bean scandal,’ but ASB dismisses all complaints and says that the advert is fine, clearly something is wrong with the system!
I am sorry, but I have lost faith in the ASB.
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I get it. We should completely outsource the responsibility of what our kids watch, along with their rocky path of sexual education, and take zero responsibility ourselves. FFS! It’s an ad. Grow some kahunas.
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But won’t somebody think of the children?!!
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The wording is purely sexualized, no one is going to decipher this to be anything other than sexual referencing and a suggestive highly sexualized photo to visually support the wording. This ad disempowered women to be nothing more than objects. Surely someone can come up with campaigning that isn’t explicitly sexual or degrading. I don’t want to see this add
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Surely groups like Collective Shout are not and should not be responsible for what the rest of us see. Community standards are not represented by a group of religious folk and should never be.
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The self regulation is not working and individual had not the capacity to really start complain and argue with powerful interest. Organization like Collective Shut that I support are standing in the way of a wrong immoral way of advertisement. The right of innocence of children is evident compromise as children are exposed. You cannot expect parent’s to send children and young adult to bed after 730 pm. Self regulation is not valid that why we had law and police to stop crime. Killer and wrong doing is always present and can be self regulate and so advertisement that is for profit will brake boundary and law like now for a dollar’s. The state should regulate and stop moral abuse.
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@Buck Passer
“Grow some kahunas”?
Really? You’re telling me that my opinion is invalid because I don’t have a pair of testes.
The 50’s rang, they want their values back.
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LMFAO. I just KNEW that sort of reaction would occur hence the use of the expression.
The point is that language and social mores change over time. A kahuna is a priest, a medicine man. or in a more general term it is anyone expert in their profession or specialty area. An area such as etymology.
It’s interesting that you took it to mean ‘the modern’ term relating to testes. But I am sure most would have.
In the ’50s that you refer to this expression did not exist, so would not have been interpreted that way. How prescient and convenient you referred to the ’50s.
Things change.
Your view of social values is just that – your view.
Modern social values are very different to those I grew up with. However, I don’t yearn for the past – I accept the present. I don’t always agree with the present. In fact in the main I disagree with the majority of current social values that prevail. But that is just my view.
But I have zero right to impose my view on others when I am just the old fuddy-duddy in the minority.
I suggest you consider the same.
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