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Broadcast Advertising Law

Licence: http://bit.ly/1i6WDD9
Licence: http://bit.ly/1i6WDD9

Marketing is how many businesses grow their client base and create awareness of new products and services. A great way to market your business is through broadcast advertising, this includes radio and television adverts, as well as text messages. This sort of marketing allows a business to reach a large potential customer base in a short period of time.

Josiah Hincks expert solicitors can advise you and your business in all aspects of Broadcast Advertising Law and we are one of few advertising law solicitors in Leicester.

However, this form of advertising has caught out a number of businesses whose adverts have failed to comply with the BCAP (the UK code of Broadcast Advertising). The BCAP is a code created by the industry to regulate broadcast advertising and is enforced by the Advertising Standards Agency. Failure to comply with the code may result in sanction (Ofcom has fined those in breach of the BCAP up to £450,000.00).

Before embarking on an advertising campaign you may wish to ensure your advert complies with the BCAP. Here are a few of the general principles that your advert will have to comply with:

Recognition of advertising: your advert must be quickly recognisable as an advert i.e. the audience should not be misled into believing the content is editorial.

Not misleading: the advert must not mislead the public e.g. material information relating to the product or service must not be excluded from the advert.

Harm and offence: Adverts should take into account generally accepted standards, and unsuitable scheduling should be avoided.

Children: children must be protected from advertisements that could cause physical, mental or moral harm.

Some products / services are by their very nature not permitted to be advertised in the UK, illegal producsts such as hand guns or controlled substances (illegal drugs) cannot be advertised in the UK.

There is a large mix of rules and law that broadcasters and businesses advertising their products / services have to comply with. For more information please get contact us online.