Mark Wilson

Ad Standards
The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards was produced in 1963. It was developed to promote professionalism in advertising, constantly being reviewed and updated to keep it current with the time. The code is administered by Advertising Standards Canada (ASC), which is the company in charge of maintaining reliable advertising in the community.
The Code is responsible for outlining criteria of acceptable advertising and ensuring companies follow the guidelines. Below are the pros and cons of having such advertising standards in Canada, both from a marketer and consumer’s view.

Pro
Some of the protection these ad standards provide for consumers are as follows:

• All claims must be supported with appropriate proof, nothing can be falsely indicated
• All details of an ad must be stated – giving customers full understanding of what they get or must do to get whatever is advertised
• No misleading claims can be advertised, they cannot omit any relevant information the consumer may need in order to make an educated decision
• Ads cannot list any deceptive price claims or discounts without a proven track record of at least 6 months sales within the market (i.e. retail price, discounted price)
• All stipulations behind price discounts must be identified (i.e. up to $X off)
• The currency used in Canadian advertising must be CAD, unless the ad clearly states otherwise
• Advertisers cannot bait and switch product – must indicate if there is a limited supply
• Testimonial have to be current and accurate based on the product advertised
• Scientific claims must be accurate according to Canadian standards
• Ads cannot exploit children due to their lack of experience, ease of persuasion and loyalty. They must adhere to children advertising standards.
• Product with a minimum age required for use (i.e. cigarettes) cannot be advertised to minors and must be displayed with adults (i.e. underage children cannot smoke cigarettes in a commercial)
• Ads cannot discriminate against anyone based on race, age, sex, gender, etc. They cannot ridicule or defame any person, organization, firm, etc. They also cannot encourage any type of violence or bullying.

Below are some situations where ad standards have protected us as consumers from deceptive marketing.

• One recent study in tobacco marketing indicated that consumers were lead to believe that the terms ‘light’ and ‘mild’ meant the products were less harmful their health (Health Canada, 2011). Therefore, the use of these terms is now prohibited because of their deceptive marketing.
• Dell Canada advertised a special price on a model of a computer across Canada, but when consumers went to purchase this model there were none available. Dell did not mention their limited quantities available and this was deemed inaccurate marketing.
• A car dealership released an ad stating that the best way to rebuild bad credit was to buy a car. However, to the Council it was deemed misleading that the solution to serious financial difficulties was to get into a car loan. The company also did not release the high terms they had behind obtaining the car loan. This ad was deemed irresponsible and misleading.
• Tanning salon advertised that ‘Tanned women live longer lives’, which was deemed inaccurate and misleading. They also tried to promote tanning bed health benefits, but forgot to list all of the potential health risks!

Complaint Stats
Even with the standards available, there are many complaints raised to the Advertising Standards Council of Canada.
Of the 1200 complaints raised to the ASC in 2010, 526 of them were regarding TV ads, which translate into 43.8% of all complaints.
Complaints regarding ads increase yearly. In 2010 there were 256 Complaints raised regarding Retail products, which is an increase from 156 in 2009, or 64% more. That same year, there were 134 Complaints regarding Services, an increase from 93 in 2009, or 44% more.

Because of the significant increases in complaints yearly, it’s obvious that advertisers are pushing the bar and without the standards who knows how far marketers would take it. We’re filing more and more complaints yearly as consumers because advertising is increasing with new contact mediums. The more susceptible we are to ads, the more we need to be protected so we can make our own educated decisions on what to purchase.

Con
I covered most of the pros of having ad standards to protect us and am now going to cover the cons of implementing ad standards.

Summary
In summary, it’s fairly obvious to me that as consumers we need ad standards to protect us from misleading or false information. Marketers are constantly pushing the bar and without these standards, we’d have so much cut throat marketing that it would overwhelm us. Also, without standards, we could succumb to deception and other tactics from companies leading us into purchases with expectations that might not be met.
Even from a marketers point of view, ad standards are a good thing. This forces everyone to play on level ground and creates less overwhelming marketing for consumers to decifer. Even for those conducting ethical advertising, consumers would still be cautious whether or not to listen to their message, because they wouldn’t know whether or not it was a legitimate claim being marketed.
Ad standards provide guidelines for marketers to follow and consumers to trust.

MM