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.
As technology advances and ‘ambient’ media becomes more prevalent, the CAP Code’s remit seems to become ever more complicated. It would be next to impossible to list all the media that the Code covers so this advice and related remit entries should be regarded as indicative, not exhaustive, in terms of defining the many types of non-broadcast marketing communications subject to the Code.
The Code applies to: all non-broadcast marketing communications including national and regional newspaper ads; magazines ads; posters; cinema commercials (scripts are usually pre-cleared by the Cinema Advertising Association); banner ads, pop-up and other ads in paid-for space on the Internet; commercial e-mails; commercial SMS text messages; direct mailings; point of sale material that consumers can retain; sales promotions, including those on-pack and on the Internet, and ambient media (the Introduction to the CAP Code, section I).
The Code does not apply, among other things, to: television and radio advertisements, which are subject to the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising (BCAP Code) and are usually pre-cleared by Clearcast (TV), www.clearcast.co.uk or the Radio Advertising Clearance Centre, www.racc.co.uk; companies’ claims on their websites (though this is likely to change in 2011); editorial; press releases and other PR material; private classified marketing communications; marketing communications in foreign media; health-related claims in marketing communications addressed only to the medical, dental, veterinary and allied professions; fixed point of sale including shop window displays; sponsorship; customer charters and codes of practice; packaging, unless it is visible in an ad or constitutes a sales promotion, and private correspondence (the Introduction to the CAP Code, section II).
See also other entries on 'Remit'.
Last modified : 14 October 2010