Spotlight: Don’t let your ads ghost the guidelines this Halloween

While it is easy to get carried away with Halloween themed ads, advertisers must still ensure campaigns are Code-compliant. To help avoid your campaigns coming back to haunt you, the ASA has come up with some fang-tastic tips to avoid unintended offence this spooky season.

Placement: Ensuring your campaign targets the correct audience will go a long way to avoiding offence. Horror themes in poster or billboard advertisements, which tend to have an unrestricted audience, are far more likely to generate complaints. Remember to check the new rules around advertising targeting children – and take note the age of a child in the Codes has been increased to under 16 years.

Targeting tools: When assessing a complaint, the Complaints Board will look at whether the advertiser used available tools to target the ad appropriately. Ads that failed to use available measures to restrict the audience may be found to be in breach of the Code.

Content: Not all audiences will appreciate horror themed ads – even when just targeting adults. Consider whether it is likely to cause undue fear, distress, or offence.

Trick or Treat

Working in the treat space? The new Food and Beverage Advertising Code applies to all new advertising from 1 August, and all advertising from 1 November 2024. Make sure your ads meet the high standard of social responsibility now required of all food advertising, and check out our industry resources for more guidance.

Have a question?  To support responsible advertising, the ASA runs the AdHelp Information Service, a user-pays service for advertisers and agencies for questions regarding advertising compliance.