James5

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I just got an e-mail from the Advertising Standards Bureau - I complained to them about Hippo and GPO ads - informing me that as the GPO advertisement is no longer running they will not be pursuing my complaint.

Now regardless of what you thought of the ad or what you thought of my complaint, the comments on that post linked to above show at least some people disagree with my calls for “censorship”, this is another example of the danger and ill-suitability of industry self-regulation. Why does it matter whether an ad is still running or not? Surely an ad, if found offensive, should result in some sort of disciplinary action against the advertiser. I’m being unfairly penalised just because I saw an ad towards the end of it’s cycle, in fact I’m being penalised for the ASB slow decision making process as I reported the ad while it was still viewable by the general public.

If the ASB is unable to pursue/discipline advertisers because their ad is no longer shown to the general public then a large incentive exists for advertisers to try out ‘racy’ ads on short runs in the knowledge that unless someone claims while the ad is still running and the ASB processes the complaint in a timely fashion, there will be no repercussions for themselves. It just doesn’t make sense that an ad complained about remains unexamined just because it no longer runs.

Of course my complaint against Hippo remains in progress, and today they ran the ad again on the back of MX so hopefully I will get some sort of resolution. It’s not funny, it’s not innovative, it’s purely exploitative and tacky - but I’m sure the ASB will justify it in some way. What is needed is strong government regulation of public advertising. If I can see it when walking down the street or on the train the government should be able to set standards to regulate the content (not to mention on tv and radio). Advertisers have been polluting public spaces for too long, something needs to be done about it.

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