ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at a practical aspect of how advertising language is regulated: whether an advert that has been complained about is misleading. It provides a brief outline of advertising regulation, then work through three non-broadcast adverts about which complaints were made to the UK advertising standards authority (ASA). The disputed text of each advert is assessed in relation to the issue raised by complainants. The chapter summarizes the ASA judgments. The ASA considered there was likely to be a general expectation among consumers that a trade-in offer normally related to broadly similar products. The non-broadcast code of advertising practice (CAP) is drafted and periodically revised by the CAP, a body drawn from advertisers, agencies and trade organisations, and administered by the ASA. In free speech theory, adverts fall within a category of commercial speech. Such speech is not prized as contributing as much to democratic society as political speech, but it is still protected to some degree.
