Launching our Scottish ad campaign to promote our role in keeping ads ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’

We are launching a brand new advertising campaign in Scotland to promote our role in helping to keep all ads ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’.

The campaign has been developed in partnership with the Advertising Association’s (AA) Trust Working Group and features creative by The Leith Agency starring famous brands including Audi, Churchill, Marmite, IRN-BRU, Mastercard, and Tesco, all generously supported with donated media space.

Our new campaign takes famous advertising campaigns for brands and interprets them in a fresh take to remind the public that all ads are fully regulated. Straplines such as Churchill’s OOoh Yes, Mastercard’s Priceless and Marmite’s Love it or hate it will feature in print, outdoor, and online ads, while two TV 10 second and 20 second ads will feature Churchill and Marmite.

It will run as a national campaign across TV (STV, C4 Scotland, Sky), Radio (Global & Bauer Media stations), Print (All Scottish National titles), Outdoor (Global Outdoor, JC Decaux, Clear Channel), Social (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok) and Online Display in activity planned by Mediacom.

  • ASA and Irn Bru national ad campaign image

    1 of 5 Image Gallery - ASA and Irn Bru national ad campaign image

  • ASA and Tesco national ad campaign image

    2 of 5 Image Gallery - ASA and Tesco national ad campaign image

  • ASA and Churchill national ad campaign image

    3 of 5 Image Gallery - ASA and Churchill national ad campaign image

  • ASA and Lloyds national campaign image

    4 of 5 Image Gallery - ASA and Lloyds national campaign image

  • ASA and Marmite national campaign image

    5 of 5 Image Gallery - ASA and Marmite national campaign image

To help gauge the success of our campaign in raising awareness of and trust in the ASA, and by extension trust in advertising, we conducted pre-campaign research on over 1,000 people over the age of 16 in both Scotland and the rest of the UK.

The research findings provided an encouraging baseline of awareness of the ASA, with:

  • 55% of Scottish people have prompted awareness of us
  • 60% of people across the rest of the UK having promoted awareness of us

The research also found that the majority of people trust the ASA, with:

  • 54% of Scottish people saying they trust us
  • 51% of adults across the rest of the UK saying they trust us, with only 6% distrusting us

Figures also showed that trust in the ad industry across the UK (17%) and trust in ads (23%) is lower. Results for Scotland were broadly comparable, with Scottish people being slightly more trusting.

However, the research found that trust in the ASA is crucial to driving trust in the ad industry. 22% of people across the UK who trust the ASA trust the ad industry, versus 17% who don’t. In Scotland, a higher 27% of people who trust the ASA trust the ad industry, versus 20% who don’t.

Post-campaign research will be undertaken so that we can measure the impact of the campaign on awareness and trust amongst Scottish people versus the rest of the UK.

 

Guy Parker, Chief Executive, Advertising Standards Authority, said:

“Our new ad campaign will help raise awareness of the ASA’s vital role regulating advertising, crucially including online, by playing around with, and celebrating, famous UK ads. The collaborative approach to our new ad campaign clearly shows the support for effective advertising self-regulation. And so we are immensely grateful to the AA, Leith and Mediacom for helping us to create and plan the campaign pro bono, and to the many media owners and platforms who have so kindly donated space and airtime.”

 

Stephen Woodford, Chief Executive, Advertising Association, said:

“We know that strong awareness of the ASA as an effective regulator of advertising content correlates with public trust in advertising and this campaign demonstrates the breadth of the ASA’s remit across all media. Our thanks must go to the brilliant efforts of the teams at Leith, Mediacom and all our media owner partners. The creative idea harnesses the power of some of Britain’s best-loved campaigns and is a tremendous demonstration of the industry support for our world-class self-regulatory system in the ASA and the creative strengths of the Scottish ad industry. We all have an interest in rebuilding public trust in advertising and I’m sure this campaign will play a key role in moving us forward in the right, positive direction.”

 

Brian Coane, Client Partner, Leith, said:

"Thanks to the support of some of Britain's leading brands we've been able to create a campaign that features the ads the public love as well as reminding them the ASA is there for them, to make sure all UK ads stick to the rules. The creative team, Jim Swan and Sam Muir, did an excellent job in finding a way to develop the campaign with humour to engage viewers while making sure the message that the ASA regulates all ads including online and social media is clear.”

More on

  • Keep up to date

    Sign up to our rulings, newsletters and emargoed access for Press. Subscribe now.