The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) publishes its annual complaints report today and according to this story in the Guardian and it shows that the regulator received the highest number of complaints from the public last year.
This got me thinking: is this evidence of the public's continuing dissatisfaction with shouty, uninteractive advertising?
Well, at first glance no. the Guardian's lead is that complaints over violent ads are at an all time high with the most complained about ads involved cruelty to children or animals and the top 10 most complained about ads did not have the complaints upheld.
But right down towards to the end of the story is the finding that the biggest reason for public complaints was.... wait for it....."allegations of misleading claims" which accounted for 45% of all complaints.
Although complainees are a self-selecting cohort I read this as the mjority of people objecting to adverts objected on the grounds that they were misleading i.e. equivocation and half-truths spun to a gullible public hoping they wouldn't look too closely at the survey results or spurious claims.
This for me is more evidence that Cluetrain was right and companeis are still failing to take heed of its anti-BS rhetoric. And of course, this is where social media comes in - listening to people; treating them as valued customers or citizens; helping or empowering them achieve what they want to achieve.
(OK. So I probably mis-represented the statistics in the story in an attempt to make a point as any good ol' advert would but, hey, isn't that what statistics are for?)
Tags: advertising, ASA, lies
Comments