Don't just accept whatever the agency says, marketers told

So said Deline Beukes, Executive Director of the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA), at a presentation organised by the Institute of Marketing Management on the ethics of advertising. She added that government has a view that marketers and advertisers live on the "mezzanine level" of life, unaware of what is going on around them.

Ms Beukes made her remarks in the context of showing her audience some of the South African adverts that have been withdrawn from the market following representations to the ASA. In particular, one advert had shown a young boy performing dangerous antics on a busy street and being hailed as a hero at the end. In the context of the high death rate in South Africa, particularly from pedestrian accidents, Ms Beukes said that the ASA had deemed this advert irresponsible and requested it to be withdrawn.

Earlier in the presentation, Ms Beukes noted that South Africa's code of conduct for advertising was a self-regulatory measure, as were most codes in the world. The United States was the only country that imposed statutory restrictions on advertising. However, the USA was a sophisticated society in the sense that consumers were highly aware of their rights and that class actions were more common than in other parts of the world.

She also pointed out that ASA research showed that 87% of South African marketers preferred the system of self-regulation.

Turning to the funding of the ASA, Ms Beukes said that this contributed to the ASA's independence and integrity. The organisation is funded by a levy on advertising that is collected by the media in which the advert is placed. This in turn is paid to the Media Industry Trust, to which the ASA submits its budget.

Essentially, the ASA offered a facility for the resolution of disputes, a process that is generally much faster and less costly than the legal process. If an advertiser is a frequent offender, it may be required to submit its adverts to the ASA for pre-approval, at its own expense.

She quoted the example of a car manufacturer that had infringed the trademark of one of its rivals, and, in addition to withdrawing the advert, had been required to submit every advert for the next six months to the ASA for pre-approval. This proved a costly and time-consuming exercise.

The ASA's code sets a number of core principles by which advertising should abide. These are: