Legal and Ethical
Oddballs Health Campaign
The Oddballs Health Campaign uses a university ambassador scheme in effort to raise awareness and donate towards the cause of testicular and breast cancer which relates to their clothing brand being underwear. This university scheme encourages students to get involved with a good cause, being beneficial for a captive audience which would help to put it on their cvs. This also getting the brand out there and benefitting Oddball's reputation. This is because the campaign is ethically good due to the cause.
Law in Advertising - Anything governed by law
- No inappropriate content (e.g. graphic content or swearing)
- Can't give false information
- representations are covered by law (e.g. religion, race, gender or your product etc.)
Ethical - Issues which are not covered by law which may raise strong feelings or moral questions in the audience
Ofcom - Office of communications which regulates TV and radio with broadcasting codes that broadcasting companies must follow otherwise they cannot air. An example of one of these codes would be the watershed which means that inappropriate content (i.e. content not suitable for children) must be aired past 9pm.
BBFC - The British Board of Film Classification responsible for the regulation of the film sector and the age rating of films. The BBFC also regulate the content of trailers.
ASA - The Advertising Standards Authority regulates advertising and make sure adverts stick to the media advertising rules such as no false advertising. They have the power to investigate financial funding in the production of advertisements. The ASA are independent to avoid bias or influence from an external company to benefit their own advertisements. The ASA also monitor ads and analyse complaints where they will either terminate or send the ad to Ofcom to deal with the advert.
Campaigns following ASA requirements
The HBO 'The Last of Us' series ad campaign follows ASA requirements through its trailers not containing false advertisement nor anything directly explicit which could traumatise children. The trailers likely only coming on after watershed, this putting the trailers in front of a captive adult (target) audience.
Ethically The Last of Us is reasonable with the only potential problem be the use of child actors which require to have a limited number of hours which can act as a limitation, certain parts of the show such as swearing or graphic scenes potentially being disagreeable with child actors. Another ethical and potentially legal problem would be conflict with the series' narrative being an adaptation to The Last of Us game series. Some episodes changing their plots or certain characters which people may not agree with.
Legal Issues: The Angel and Harlequin Campaign
Copyright: A potential Issue I could face in creating my campaign is the copyright act; this would primarily be an issue in the creation of a promotional video, primarily in the use of footage containing background music that I do not have the rights for or permission to use. The consequences for failing to meet this act could result in a sue to the Angel & Harlequin Bistro and subsequently, a large fine. However, this can be avoided through using my own footage with my own background audio/music to avoid any potential breaches to the act and lawsuits.
Libel and Slander: One other legal issue I could face is within the way I represent the Angel & Harlequin brand. An example would be within the voice-over within my promotional video; I would have to represent the brand positively and not insult it nor other brands within the advert to avoid slander. Likewise, within my static adverts (poster and flyer) I would have to again, represent the brand positively and not use libel to discredit or insult other brands within the posters (i.e. our cakes are way better than the terrible ones at Greene King).
Ethical Issues: The Angel and Harlequin
Representation: An ethical issue I would have to consider is the way I represent actors and models within my promotional material. This would be through avoiding perpetuating offensive stereotypes and ensuring that the content is age appropriate. This would be through researching regulation regarding the ASA's policies on representation of people and the actions they can be doing (e.g. not showing anyone under 25 drinking alcohol).
Use of Person's Image: Another potential ethical issue that creates an problem for filming and photography within advertisements is the gaining of permission of customers in the restaurant to use their image in advertising and representing that image positively; not taking footage or photos of those who do not wish to be involved.
