Committee of Advertising Practice

The CAP, alongside ASA, is primarily responsible for the constant revising and updating of the UK Code of Non-Broadcast Advertising, Direct Marketing, and Sales Promotion (CAP Code).{{Cite book|last1=Feintuck|first1=Mike|title=Media regulation, public interest and the law|last2=Varney|first2=Mike|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2006|isbn=0-7486-2715-4|edition=2nd|location=Edinburgh|pages=197|chapter=Institutional Design and Accountability in UK Media Regulation|jstor=10.3366/j.ctt1r1zdc|oclc=71000508}}{{cite web|date=August 2010|title=Advertising update – the new CAP and BCAP Codes|url=https://www.farrer.co.uk/Global/Briefings/10.%20Media%20Group%20Briefing/Advertising%20update%20-%20the%20new%20CAP%20and%20BCAP%20Codes.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016015549/https://www.farrer.co.uk/Global/Briefings/10.%20Media%20Group%20Briefing/Advertising%20update%20-%20the%20new%20CAP%20and%20BCAP%20Codes.pdf|archive-date=16 October 2017|access-date=July 19, 2020}} CAP also provides training and advice for advertisers to help them understand the Code,{{cite report|title=Alcohol (Licensing, Public Health and Criminal Justice) Scotland Bill|url=https://www.parliament.scot/S4_HealthandSportCommittee/Inquiries/ALPC43_-_ASA_and_CAP.pdf|publisher=Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP)|id=ALPC43|access-date=July 19, 2020|archive-date=16 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016014906/http://www.parliament.scot/S4_HealthandSportCommittee/Inquiries/ALPC43_-_ASA_and_CAP.pdf|url-status=dead}} including offering free advice to companies on whether their ad copy is likely to meet the Code requirements.{{Cite web|title=Copy Advice team|url=https://www.asa.org.uk/about-asa-and-cap/people/copy-advice-team.html|access-date=2020-07-19|website=Advertising Standards Authority {{!}} Committee of Advertising}} Broadcast advertising is explicitly not within the remit of the CAP; instead, advertisements that are broadcast on television or radio are regulated by the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice and their separate standards.{{Cite report|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulation-of-advertising-in-the-media|title=Self- and Co-Regulation: The Advertising Standards Authority|date=17 December 2010|publisher=Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy|access-date=19 June 2020}} Industries under particular focus for CAP in terms of rules and guidelines for advertising include alcohol and gambling.

Though some of the advertising rules are legally enforceable, the majority are self-regulatory and based on the commitment of involved stakeholders following best practice. The committee has no statutory or common law powers in the UK;{{Cite journal|last=Sinclair|first=Michael|date=1992|title=Judicial Review of the Exercise of Public Power|url=http://ubplj.org/index.php/dlj/article/viewFile/228/254|journal=The Denning Law Journal|volume=7|issue=1|pages=199|access-date=22 July 2020}} despite this fact, courts have found that CAP decisions are subject to the judicial review process, in the same way as they would be were it to be the case that CAP was a government body.{{Cite journal|last=Lidbetter|first=A W|date=1994|title=The Advertising Standards Authority, the Committee of Advertising Practice and Judicial Review|url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/tojmedlp15&i=127|journal=Media Law & Practice|volume=15|issue=4|pages=113–114|url-access=subscription|access-date=19 July 2020|via=Hein Online}} The CAP Code is, however, not considered to be covered by competition law in the United Kingdom.{{Cite journal|last=Reich|first=Norbert|date=1992|title=Rechtsprobleme grenzüberschreitender irreführender Werbung im Binnenmarkt: – dargestellt am deutschen, französischen und englischen Recht unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des EG-Rechts –|trans-title=Legal problems of cross-border misleading advertising in the internal market: illustrated by German, French and English law, with particular reference to EC law|journal=Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht / The Rabel Journal of Comparative and International Private Law|language=de|volume=56|issue=3|pages=489|jstor=27877545|issn=0033-7250}}

Whilst the committee itself is composed of members from advertisers and the media, its operations are overseen by the ASA's Governing Council, at least half of whose members are not linked to the advertising industry.{{Cite journal|last=Munro|first=Colin|date=1997|title=Self-regulation in the media|journal=Public Law|issue=Spring|pages=12}} This council is able to overturn the decisions that CAP makes, if it decides that it would be appropriate to do so.

Work on a voluntary code to regulate advertising in the UK began with the Advertising Association (AA) in 1960, following the advent of commercial television in the country, which was at the time an incredibly controversial concept.{{Cite journal|last=Brown|first=Andrew|s2cid=154130127|date=2006|title=Advertising Regulation and Co-Regulation: The Challenge of Change|journal=Economic Affairs|language=en|volume=26|issue=2|pages=31–36|doi=10.1111/j.1468-0270.2006.00628.x|issn=1468-0270}} Amid the controversy, and fearing the potential for government regulation akin to that of the Federal Communications Commission in the United States,{{Cite book|last=Mackay|first=Adrian|title=The practice of advertising|date=2005|publisher=Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann|isbn=978-0-7506-6173-7|edition=5th|location=Oxford|pages=332|oclc=474951974}} the AA created the committee in 1961, aiming to ensure that non-broadcast advertisements were "honest, decent, legal and truthful".{{Cite journal|last1=Morris|first1=Yvonne|last2=Randle|first2=Paul|date=2005-09-22|title=Developments in the Regulation of Broadcasting Advertising|journal=The Entertainment and Sports Law Journal|language=en|volume=3|issue=1|pages=5|doi=10.16997/eslj.123|issn=1748-944X|doi-access=free}}

Over time, its role became more closely linked to government agencies. In 1988, the committee began to work more closely with the Office of Fair Trading, now part of the Competition and Markets Authority, following the passage of the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations of that year.{{Cite journal|last1=Hörnle|first1=Julia|last2=Carran|first2=Malgorzata A.|date=December 2018|title=A sieve that does hold a little water – gambling advertising and protection of the vulnerable in the UK|url=http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/19376/|journal=Legal Studies|language=en|volume=38|issue=4|pages=529–548|doi=10.1017/lst.2018.5|s2cid=151715487|issn=0261-3875|access-date=22 July 2020}}

In the mid-1990s, the committee deemed an advert for Brass Monkeys-branded underwear that "focused on the groin area" of a male model to be "unsuitable for public consumption".{{Cite journal|last=Jobling|first=Paul|date=2003|title=Underexposed: Spectatorship and Pleasure in Men's Underwear Advertising in the Twentieth Century|journal=Paragraph|volume=26|issue=1/2|pages=158|doi=10.3366/para.2003.26.1-2.147|jstor=43263720|issn=0264-8334}} Critics claimed that the decision was sexist, saying that adverts of a similar or even more sexual nature featuring women had been allowed.{{Cite news|last=Culf|first=Andrew|date=13 November 1996|title=Warning over men's briefs ad 'sexist'|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/294992627|url-access=subscription|access-date=21 July 2020|id={{ProQuest|294992627}}|via=ProQuest}}

With email spam on the rise around the turn of the millennium, in 2003, the committee modified the CAP Code to require unsolicited email advertising to be easily identifiable, and to put restrictions on when it could be used at all.{{Cite news|last=Booth|first=Emily|date=April 2003|title=Code acts to cap influx of spam|work=Revolution|issn=1460-5953|id={{ProQuest|231133199}}}} These restrictions were put in place around the same time as the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, which similarly restricted the ability of email spammers to legally send junk mail.{{Cite report|url=https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rnc1/APIG-report-spam.pdf|title="Spam": Report of an Inquiry by the All Party Internet Group|date=October 2003|publisher=All Party Parliamentary Internet Group|page=11|access-date=21 July 2020}}{{Cite journal|last=Hare|first=Zoe|s2cid=167376071|date=October 2009|title=Who should regulate consumer credit advertising and sales?|journal=Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice|language=en|volume=11|issue=2|pages=151–155|doi=10.1057/dddmp.2009.25|issn=1746-0166|doi-access=free}}

In February 2008, CAP banned adverts for products with high fat, salt and sugar content on programmes that are specifically targeted at children between the ages of four and fifteen.{{Cite journal|last=Haug|first=Thomas Walter|date=2008|title=The New Audiovisual Media Services Directive as a Missed Opportunity in View of the Protection of Children and Young People against Harmful Influences of Advertisement in Nowadays' Media EU Law|url=http://hanselawreview.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Vol4No1Art03.pdf|journal=Hanse Law Review|volume=4|issue=1|pages=35}} Similar restrictions were imposed by the committee in December 2016, when CAP announced it had extended the broadcast ban on banning junk food ads to digital media, stopping the advertising of "high fat, salt or sugar food or drink products" in media where more than 25% of the audience was under 16. This covered print, cinema, and digital channels, including social media.{{Cite journal|last1=Reeve|first1=Belinda|last2=Magnusson|first2=Roger|date=2018|title=Regulation of Food Advertising to Children in Six Jurisdictions: A Framework for Analyzing and Improving the Performance of Regulatory Instruments|url=http://arizonajournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/02_Reeve-1.pdf|journal=Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law|volume=35|issue=1|access-date=22 July 2020}} Some criticised the decision as abrogating parental responsibility for what children consume.{{Cite news|last=Haworth|first=Elliott|date=12 December 2016|title=Banning junk food ads won't stem the flow of fat kids|work=CityAM|url=https://www.cityam.com/banning-junk-food-ads-wont-stem-flow-fat-kids/|access-date=22 July 2020}}

As digital marketing became more and more significant, in March 2011, CAP extended the remit of the CAP Code to encompass a variety of different marketing tactics used online by companies, including the posting of content to their own websites. Prior to this change, the CAP Code had only applied to those adverts which were contained within paid advertising spots.{{Cite journal|last=Schneider|first=Fiona|s2cid=167659291|date=January 2015|title=CAP publishes 'online remit update'|journal=Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice|language=en|volume=16|issue=3|pages=230–232|doi=10.1057/dddmp.2015.13|issn=1746-0166|doi-access=free}}

On 9 March 2017, the committee published new guidelines on working with online influencers, particularly on social media. These guidelines described the requirements for audiences to clearly see when material is an advertisement, even before clicking through to the content itself.{{cite web|last=Roderick|first=Leonie|date=9 March 2017|title=Brands should be aware of social platform 'quirks' when working with influencers|url=https://www.marketingweek.com/2017/03/09/brands-aware-social-quirks-influencers/|access-date=2 April 2019|work=Marketing Week}} However, the guidelines have been interpreted in different ways across different ASA enforcement decisions.{{Cite journal|last1=Riefa|first1=Christine|last2=Clausen|first2=Laura|date=2019-04-01|title=Towards Fairness in Digital Influencers' Marketing Practices|url=https://kluwerlawonline.com/journalarticle/Journal+of+European+Consumer+and+Market+Law/8.2/EuCML2019012|journal=Journal of European Consumer and Market Law|language=en|volume=8|issue=2}}

In December 2018, the committee issued new guidelines effective 14 June 2019, prohibiting the usage of gender stereotypes "likely to cause harm, or serious or widespread offence" in advertising.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48628678|title=Gender stereotypes in adverts banned|date=2019-06-14|work=BBC News|access-date=2019-12-04|language=en-GB}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46558944|title=Watchdog bans gender stereotypes in adverts|work=BBC News|date=2018-12-14|access-date=2019-12-04|language=en-GB}} The decision followed an advertisement featuring a woman in a bikini and the tagline "Are you beach body ready?" for a company called Protein World, which prompted 378 separate complaints to the ASA.{{Cite journal|last=Shibley|first=Kristen Edwardine|date=2019|title=United Kingdom Regulation of Gender Stereotyping in Non-Broadcast Media|url=https://www.gwilr.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/51.2_United-Kingdom-Regulation-of-Gender-Stereotyping_Shibley.pdf|journal=George Washington International Law Review|volume=51|issue=2|access-date=22 July 2020|archive-date=19 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719004311/https://www.gwilr.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/51.2_United-Kingdom-Regulation-of-Gender-Stereotyping_Shibley.pdf|url-status=dead}} News reports claimed that a variety of advertisements that had previously aired would no longer be acceptable under the new rules.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/12/14/ads-would-probably-have-been-banned-under-the-asas-new-gender-stereotype-rules|title=Ads that would probably have been banned under the ASA's new gender stereotype rules|website=The Drum|language=en|access-date=2019-12-04}}

• Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice

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• {{Official website|https://www.asa.org.uk/}}

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Category:Advertising organizations

Category:Communications and media organisations based in the United Kingdom

Category:1961 establishments in the United Kingdom

Category:Organizations established in 1961

Category:Self-regulatory organisations in the United Kingdom

Category:Self-regulatory organizations of the advertising industry

Category:Advertising in the United Kingdom