The ASA - Who are They and Why Do We Need Them?

The ASA is an abbreviation meaning the Advertising Standards Authority. They were set up in 1961 with the ultimate goal to make every advert in Britain responsible and to comply with certain guidelines. They have a five-stage strategy: understanding, support, impact, proactive and awareness.

They are passionate about making advertisements harmless for people, community and society in Britain. Their job is to monitor any adverts that are of concern to the ASA organisation or to the general public. Any advert that fails to comply with ASA regulations, even after being warned and advised on how to make the advert less controversial, will receive sanctions.

The severity of these sanctions vary on how blatant the regulation violation is. A sanction can range from warning an advert to change certain content to telling programmes and channels not to show that specific ad.

The ASA is important because without it, any advert could contain anything, and be on every channel at any time.