Advertising Magic or Deceptive Tricks of the Trade – Mapping Controversial Advertising and its Regulation

Advertising is a magic system (Williams, 1980), with magical powers (Hegarty, 2014) in its ability to create needs, wants, desire and promote action. Advertisers are historically criticised for playing tricks that can mislead,... [ view full abstract ]

Advertising is a magic system (Williams, 1980), with magical powers (Hegarty, 2014) in its ability to create needs, wants, desire and promote action. Advertisers are historically criticised for playing tricks that can mislead, deceive even harm a vulnerable public. Controversial advertising practices breach acceptable standards of society if campaign messages or techniques deliberately set out to shock, offend or deceive. Advertising regulations attempt to stem bad marketing practices. However, public complaints about advertising are continually rising despite legal statutes, codes of advertising, protracted agency and client deliberations and media pre-clearance checks. Many campaigns still push the limits in terms of truthfulness, taste and decency; calling into question the effectiveness of extant advertising regulations.

Using qualitative methods, this study explores the processes that underpin the regulation of controversial advertising in the UK. It triangulates the views of client marketers, advertising practitioners and regulators and presents a new model of advertising regulation called the 6Cs. The findings help to map the advertising process stages of creation, clearance, communication, complaint, compliance and control. Our model highlights the increasing importance of the pre-advertising clearance stage as a potential means to foster more socially responsible advertising practice and counter the costly consequences of controversial campaigns.