Note: This advice is given by the CAP Executive about non-broadcast advertising. It does not constitute legal advice. It does not bind CAP, CAP advisory panels or the Advertising Standards Authority.
Headlining advertisements “Public Notice” is an approach that some marketers have used in the past to capture consumer attention. But marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so (Rule 3.1)
Rule 2.1 states that marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as such. Advertisers therefore, should not seek to create the impression that they are linked to a public authority or that their ads are an official announcement if they are merely acting in their own commercial interest (MV Building Contracts Ltd, 30 June 2004; Ray Sayers Insulation & Preservation, 9 July 2003, and Fingershield Safety UK Ltd, 2 March 2005). The ASA has upheld complaints even when the marketer’s name was stated (British Telecommunications plc, 16 July 2003) and when a marketer was seeking to draw readers’ attention to a scheme set up by the Government (Sureclaim Ltd, 18 February 2004).
Genuine public notices produced by public authorities and the like are outside the remit of the Code (Rule II.f).
See ’Recognising Marketing Communications and Identifying Marketers’.
Last modified : 29 March 2012