Advertising Standards Authority Ruling

All the adverts are in this video:

Pot Noodle 0:28 - 1:18

Act on Co2 4:27 - 5:26

Volkswagen 5:32 - 7:12

The first advert that i looked at that was banned by the ASA, was Pot Noodle, they created a quite 'hilarious' advert and due to their being 620 complaints about it, the ASA looked into the advert was upheld with the complaints and was banned shortly afterwards, The reasons for the banning were stated as: " Crude, Generally Tasteless and offensive " The ASA watched the advert for themselves and agreed with the Offensive section as it shows a man with something pointy sticking out of his trousers and it can offend some people, although it turns out to be a trumpet it still could offend people and so the ASA was right in banning the Advert.

In my Opinion i think that the ASA was right in their decision to ban, as the Advert does not really portray the Product at the start and the advert was not very effective either, the advert plays its self on a sexual innuendo to try and be 'funny' and gain attention but it really was just 'childish' and does not really make people want to try their product,

On the other hand, people may think that the advert was just trying to just create a 'different' type of advert that would catch the audience's eye and so make them want to watch the advert even more to see what the end product is going to be, some people may like the advert and would not think that it was ban worthy, usually people with a weird sense of humor or people that just really like the brand of pot noodle.

The Second advert that i looked at that was banned was the Act on Co2 advert, This advert is done to try and get people to realize the impact of co2 and how it can shape the future of the the world however the advert received 840 complaints and the ASA also had a look at this advert to see what the commotion was about, The advert is in the shape of a bed time story, however it is not a 'nice' bed-time story as it shows the real devastating impacts of Carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere. The complaints were made because it was was seen to be: " Misleading and scaremongering, and also exaggerating the impact of Co2" The advert was then banned by the ASA upholding the complaints and agreeing with the Public.

In my Opinion, i dont think that the ASA was right in banning, as the advert was potentially telling the truth about carbon emissions in the future as it is causing climate change, and global warming right now, so i think that a lot of people should of watched it and received a moral to try and protect the Earth more, as it we are slowly killing it off, i believe that the advert should have not been banned.

People may disagree with me by saying that is was trying to scare people into believing the facts about Co2, this could make them not want to act, as they can feel as if they have been forced to do things that they did not want to do, also the advert could have been exaggerating the facts to try and make the audience feel a burden and a part to play and so it may have received negative views as well.

The last advert that i looked at was Volkswagen, they are a car company, and their advert was made in a quite weird manner, not what you would expect of a car manufacturer, the advert is set by an engineer in the Volkswagen Factory, however there are clones of him everywhere and he has to fight his way across the factory, The advert received 1070 complaints and the ASA had to immediately look at the advert as to see why it caused such an outrage. The reasons for the complaints were: " Too violent to be shown, especially before 9pm" The ASA also upheld the complaints and the advert was banned.

I think that the advert should not have been banned, as i think it was action packed and it made the audience wonder what the product/service was, it also grabbed the viewers attention and caused them to watch it fully to see if the engineer gets away, i think the ASA were partially right, as i dont think the advert should be showed before the 9pm mark, but after 9pm i think that the advert was effective and it shows the Volkswagen car at the end as well.

People may disagree with me by saying that the it is too violent to be shown at any time of the day, as it could be distressing to some people, the advert seemed to show as if it promotes violence, and not all children go to sleep at 9pm so it could also cause problems for younger audiences as they would not understand the context of the advert, and could potentially scare younger audiences, and so they are right to ban the advert.