the Advertising Rules Miles Lockwood Director of Complaints and - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Essay Mills and the Advertising Rules Miles Lockwood Director of Complaints and Investigations Advertising Standards Authority 22 May 2019

What I’ll cover • The ASA and CAP & what we do • Context • The 2018 rulings, learning from mistakes • Further resources available

Who are the ASA and CAP? Two bodies, shared goals: • Writes the Advertising Codes • Advice, guidance & training for industry • Over 400,000 pieces of advice and training delivered to industry in 2018 • Applies and administers the Advertising Codes • Complaint handling, 33,000 complaints in 2018 • Conducts issue led project work

The context • ASA applies rules to keep ad standards high • Misleadingness rules – mirror the law • We are not here to ban legitimate business • But we are here to protect consumers from being misled • Students as consumers. Need to take especial care

Recent Essay Mill Rulings: the complaints • Three formal ‘Upheld’ rulings following complaints • Various problems with websites offering essay services:  Claims that implied that an essay could be handed in as a student’s own work  Claims that implied a student could “order” a guaranteed grade  Websites which failed to make sufficiently clear the risks of submitting purchased essays as their own  Websites implied that essay writers were mainly Oxbridge educated or endorsed by positive press coverage

Oxbridge Essays – Website

All Answers Ltd t/a UK Essays - Website

Thoughtbridge Consulting - Website

Recent Essay Mill Rulings: learning lessons • The complaints were upheld because:  The claims gave an overall impression that the work could be submitted as their own  The meaning of the claims wasn’t always sufficiently clear in the ads & they weren’t sufficiently qualified  Warning messages were buried away, with no attempt to draw attention to them in the purchase journey  The ads were therefore likely to mislead

Press coverage

Further resources • Newsletters: Insight and Update • Bespoke Copy Advice, AdviceOnline database, CAP eLearning & training events: www.asa.org.uk • Twitter: @ASA_UK @CAP_UK

Final thoughts University students are under increasing pressure to deliver in an age of greater competition and higher costs.  Practice what you teach: play by the advertising rules, in particular by being precise about what the product is to be used to achieve by giving clear warning qualifications.  Market responsibly to reduce the temptation for students to cheat  Essay writing services can get free help from CAP advice and training and Copy Advice if in doubt.

Thank you Miles Lockwood Director of Complaints and Investigations Advertising Standards Authority Mid City Place, 71 High Holborn London WC1V 6QT Telephone 020 7492 2222 www.asa.org.uk