• 12 advertisements across social media, online, radio, television and print were found to be in breach of the ASAI Code on grounds related to a range of issues including Misleading, Substantiation, Decency & Propriety, Alcohol and Environmental Claims

The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland’s (ASAI) independent Complaints Committee has released its latest Complaints Bulletin, which contains 18 case reports on complaints recently investigated by the organisation.

10 of the 18 cases were upheld in full and 2 of the 18 cases were upheld in part. Advertisements across social media, online, radio, television and print were found to be in breach of the ASAI Code on grounds related to Misleading, Substantiation, Decency & Propriety, Alcohol and Environmental Claims. Two intra industry / interested party complaints were upheld in part. The ASAI Complaints Committee chose not to uphold complaints made against 3 advertisements and issued a statement to 1 advertisement.

The Complaints Committee is a completely independent arm of the ASAI and is responsible for considering and adjudicating on complaints submitted by the public, by an organisation, by a Government Department, or any other person or body. The Committee is made up of a range of experts from the advertising, media, education, consumer, and marketing sectors. See further details here – http://www.asai.ie/about-us/complaints-committee

Commenting on the latest ASAI rulings, Orla Twomey, Chief Executive of the ASAI, stated:

“The latest complaints bulletin from the ASAI shows the scope of the ASAI and the significant part we play in ensuring that advertisements are legal, truthful, decent and honest for all Irish consumers. The ASAI fully investigates all complaints thoroughly to ensure that marketing communications in Ireland are adhering to the guidelines and not in breach of the ASAI code.

“The ASAI also provides a free and confidential copy advice service to the advertising industry to help them create responsible ads that adhere to the advertising code. If an advertiser, agency, or medium has any concerns about a marketing communications’ compliance with the ASAI’s Code, they can contact us and avail of the free and confidential copy advice service.”

Below is a list of advertisements that have been found to be in breach of the ASAI Code:

The following advertisements were investigated and the ASAI Complaints Committee found that they did not breach the Code on the grounds raised in the complaints.

The ASAI chose to uphold in part two complaints made by an Intra-industry or Interested Party in the following cases:

The ASAI chose to issue a statement in the following case:

The ASAI conducts ongoing monitoring of advertising across all media and since 2007, has examined over 27,000 advertisements, with an overall compliance rate of 98 percent. The ASAI Monitoring Service monitors compliance with the Complaints Committee’s adjudications.

Media are reminded that advertisements found to be in breach of the Code cannot be accepted for publication.

www.asai.ie

Follow The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland on LinkedIn and Twitter @THE_ASAI

Enet, Ireland’s largest open access telecoms network provider, has donated a humanitarian aid vehicle to London based charity ‘The Scrubbery’ to transport vital medical supplies to Eastern Ukraine.

The vehicle (a specialised 4×4 Mercedes Sprinter) began its journey in Dublin on 20^th April and has now travelled across Europe and into Ukraine. Stocked with compressors, scrubs, face masks and surgical equipment, the aid van will provide Ukrainian medical staff with the much-needed PPE equipment as well as wheelchairs and crutches for the injured.

Once the medical supplies have been delivered to its recipients, the vehicle will then be used as an ambulance for medical evacuations, providing a safe transport vehicle for injured people in need of medical assistance.

‘The Scrubbery’ co-ordinates local volunteers in Putney, London, to fulfil requests for scrubs from NHS hospitals and healthcare providers across London and wherever there is a need. So far, they have delivered over 48,000 items including scrubs, face masks and scrub caps as well as 1,500 well-being bags.

The opportunity for Enet to become involved arose through the introductions of Jerr Kealy of Kealy Motors in Sandyford and Mr Tony Fitzpatrick, Director of Industrial Relations at Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

Peter McCarthy, CEO of Enet, said: “At Enet, we are grateful to be in a position to donate this specialised aid vehicle and work alongside ‘The Scrubbery’ in London, who carry out such important and significant work providing critical medical supplies in both the United Kingdom and now in Ukraine. It’s a privilege to be a part of this campaign and play a small part in providing support to those who need it most. Sincere thanks to Jerr Kealy of Kealy Motors and Tony Fitzpatrick for giving us the opportunity to support such a significant initiative.”

Enet operates the largest alternative wholesale telecoms network in Ireland, which comprises of over 5,400 Km of fibre infrastructure, including the Irish State’s Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), proprietary metro networks, a unique dark fibre backhaul infrastructure, as well as one of the largest licensed wireless networks in the country. Taken together, Enet’s infrastructure creates a fully integrated, nationwide network that is truly open access in nature, enabling retail service providers to deliver world class bandwidth services to their customers throughout Ireland.

www.enet.ie

LinkedIn: Enet (Open Access Networks)

www.theScrubbery.org

• The Irish Sun’s Damien Lane hosts the podcast detailing the 40-year history of the Kinahan family

• Series features interviews with former Assistant Garda Commissioners Michael O’Sullivan and John O’Driscoll as well as families of the cartel’s victims

• Hear key insights from Stephen Breen, Crime Editor of The Irish Sun, into the 2016 Regency Hotel attack

The Irish Sun, Ireland’s bestselling daily tabloid newspaper, is launching a new Irish true crime podcast called ‘The Kinahans’ which tells the 40-year story of Ireland’s most feared crime family.

Hosted by The Irish Sun’s Damien Lane (pictured above), a veteran journalist who has covered Irish life and crime for over two decades, the nine part series, which premieres on Wednesday, April 26, traces Christy Kinahan’s rise from low-key fraudster to leader of one of Europe’s biggest organised crime gangs. Top Gardai give exclusive insights into the inner workings of the cartel, with former assistant commissioners Michael O’Sullivan and John O’Driscoll revealing their dealings with the gang. The podcast also speaks to the victims of the Kinahans’ rise, community activists, politicians and those with keen insights into the subjects of this story.

Stephen Breen, Crime Editor of The Irish Sun, outlines the strange series of events that led to The Regency attack in February 2016, which resulted in the brutal murder of Kinahan Cartel lieutenant David Byrne and Ireland’s bloodiest ever gangland feud that same year.

The podcast also features a range of emotional interviews with victims of those whose lives have been taken as a result of the Kinahan Cartel, including Noleen Barr, sister of Michael Barr who tragically lost his life in 2016’s north-inner city feud.

Following on from the success of The Irish Sun’s hit 2021 podcast ‘The Making Of A Detective,’ the podcast aims to predict what might come next for The Kinahan Cartel, as they continue to evade The FBI, An Garda Síochána, Interpol and a number of other police services globally.

The series culminates in “The Irish Gangland Trial of the Century” as The Irish Sun’s Senior News Reporter Michael Doyle recounts the many twists and turns of the recent murder trial of Irish godfather Gerry Hutch.

The Kinahans premieres on Wednesday, April 26 with one episode released weekly and is available on all popular podcast platforms.

Kieran McDaid, Editor of The Irish Sun, says: “We are delighted to present another thrilling true crime podcast after the success of ‘The Making Of A Detective’ in 2021. Everyone knows of the Kinahan cartel, but this podcast reveals and dissects their ascent to the top of Irish gangland. Exhaustive investigative journalism brings new perspectives from contemporaries, the police force trying to catch them and the families of victims of their cruel reign. Hosted by our very own Damien Lane, a veteran journalist with decades of experience, with input from award-winning Crime Editor Stephen Breen and reporter Michael Doyle, who was inside the courtroom for the entire Regency trial, we are sure this podcast will enthral listeners and bring them fresh revelations.”

You can listen to The Kinahans podcast here on Spotify or Apple

The Irish Sun is Ireland’s bestselling daily tabloid newspaper, with the latest local and global news, fashion, entertainment and sport.

Check out www.thesun.ie or follow us on @IrishSunOnline

The ASAI’s new strategic focus developed last year aims to strengthen the ASAI’s role as a self and co-regulatory body working with government and industry stakeholders

to reinforce compliance in advertising and provide solutions to challenges presented by the evolving media landscape in Ireland

The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI), the independent self-regulatory body committed in the public interest to promoting the highest standards of marketing communications, has today unveiled a new strategic focus as part of their Annual Report 2022.

As identified as part of the ASAI’s renewed corporate direction, trust is the cornerstone of advertising, and fostering this trust between consumers and advertisers will remain a key pillar and undertaking for the ASAI in 2023. As the sole moderator of all advertising complaints in the industry for over 40 years, the ASAI will continue to enforce compliance in this area as a significant focus point of the new organisational direction.

To enhance this new strategic focus, the ASAI has also committed to provide additional resources to increase proactive monitoring and regulating. By committing to increased regulation and the formation of new strategic alliances, the ASAI will continue to foster trust in communications and ensure all content is legal, decent, honest and true. The ASAI is strongly positioned to be at the forefront of both self-regulatory and co-regulatory solutions and has the critical knowledge base to ensure the best solutions are achieved to address the challenges posed by the significant changes to the overall regulatory framework.

The ASAI intends to increase independence on the organisation’s board and make greater use of expert advice through forums and panels while also reaching out for wider industry engagement. Accordingly, ASAI has increased efforts and resources internally for 2023-2024 to ensure this happens.

ASAI has periodically undertaken various compliance monitoring projects, both offline and online. Such is the breadth of digital advertising, that monitoring by fully manual interventions alone can sometimes prevent monitoring at scale. With the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning, ASAI has being giving consideration to the potential use of such tools as a medium to long term part-solution to managing scale. Embarking on a potentially new permanent solution would be a significant investment for ASAI. With this in mind, the ASAI has worked in close partnership with EASA and other member SROs to consider the possibilities, as well as the potential for outsourcing to a dedicated software partner and what benefits it may have to offer on a long-term basis. Further exploratory work in this area will continue in 2023 to align with the renewed corporate direction of the organisation.

ASAI worked alongside the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) during the development of The Online Safety and Media Regulation Act (OMSRA) which was enacted in December 2022 and to explore co-sharing the new onerous advertising related obligations arising for Ireland following the transposition of the AudioVisual Media Services Directive by virtue of the OMSRA. Joining forces with the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA), of which the ASAI is a co-founder, ASAI successfully partnered with them on providing the BAI with a solution to a critical citizens’ complaints mechanism for advertising content on video sharing platforms.  This places the ASAI at the centre of an evolving area to protect citizens rights at a pan-European level. The work resulted in a Statement of Intent between the BAI and EASA, with an intent to continue exploring and building on the work to date.

In addition to its work on the new organisational strategy, the ASAI also continued to provide an important complaint handling function to address consumer concerns about advertising and marketing communications.  In 2022, ASAI received 1,187 complaints about 897 advertisements.  The top three complained about sectors were: Health & Beauty, 193; Leisure, 170 and Motoring, 116.  As in previous years, the majority of complaints were made on the grounds that the advertising was misleading (72%) and digital media was the most mentioned media (52%).

The majority of complaints received either did not involve a breach of the Code or the advertising was amended or withdrawn by the advertisers.  A key element of the ASAI process is the Independent Complaints Committee who decide on cases submitted to them for formal adjudication. In 2022, 74 advertisements were submitted to the Complaints Committee with 59 advertisements found in breach of the Code.  Further details of the complaints resolved by the ASAI in 2022 are available in the Annual Report for 2022.

Commenting on the key highlights from 2022, CEO of the ASAI, Orla Twomey said:

“The ASAI is committed to promoting the highest standards of marketing communications in Ireland and our 2022 Annual Report is testament to this statement, conveying the sheer breadth of the ASAI’s activities across a range of areas including compliance, scheduled monitoring, copy advice, brand awareness, complaints investigation and adjudication, advisory corporate services and policy.

2022 saw the ASAI continue to deeply engage in and enhance our service offerings. The development of the new strategic focus and its ongoing implementation has been a significant achievement for the ASAI over the last 12 months and is an area of immense importance as we continue to navigate the ever-changing and evolving media landscape. 

Influencer marketing, which continues to grow exponentially, remains an area of significant concern for ASAI in terms of recognisability. While ASAI has had specific guidelines in place for influencer marketing, we look forward to co-creating new guidelines in partnership with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to revise standards and enhance content safeguards for consumers.

In 2022 we saw consumer awareness of the ASAI as an independent organisation that is responsible for overseeing advertising standards in Ireland increase from 43% (2020) to 55% (2022). This a welcome increase and something that we will strive to grow as part of our new strategic direction.”

Another significant highlight from 2022 was the appointment of Miriam Hughes as Chair of the ASAI last September. With over 30 years working in the Marketing and Communications business, Miriam’s extensive experience will be of immense benefit to the ASAI as the organisation continues to successfully navigate the complexities of the advertising eco-system and extending its reach with diverse stakeholders.

Commenting on the new strategic focus for the organisation, Miriam Hughes, Chair of the ASAI, said:

“It’s been an honour to join the board of the ASAI, particularly at such pivotal time for the organisation developing and implementing our new strategy. With more recent changes to the overall regulatory landscape, the ASAI is strongly placed to provide both independent self-regulatory and co-regulatory solutions to the challenges posed. This is a critical time for the organisation and the wider advertising industry, but we are well prepared having embarked on a new and ambitious corporate strategy to ensure we are highly effective in all areas.

Given the increasing complexities of the advertising, marketing and legislative eco-system, our new strategy has identified the importance of continuing and significantly increasing a focus on enhancing strong relationships with key stakeholders. The ASAI will work even more proactively to maintain its critical role as the regulator for advertising in Ireland, as we seek to develop a closer regulatory relationships and alliances with Government.

We intend to ensure Ireland has a world-class capability in protecting the integrity of all marketing communications across all platforms and ensuring all such content is decent, honest and true. Building on its productive work with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, the ASAI Executive are proactively engaging with the newly formed media commission, An Coimisiún na Meán, the statutory body with responsibility for online safety and media regulation.  Allied to the organisational strategy, they will capitalise on the opportunity to provide and extend ASAI services to key stakeholders involved, including at Government Department and State Agency level as well as social media platforms headquartered in Ireland.

Our recent sentiment survey demonstrated that trust in advertising has remained low for consumers in Ireland, which is similar to the situation globally. This is a concern for our board, for consumers and Government alike, as well as for the advertising industry. We have committed to renewed strategic focus, in fostering trust in advertising by deploying additional resources to proactively monitoring, regulating and enforcing high standards across all communications sectors.”

The ASAI was established in 1981 and the objective of the ASAI Code is to ensure that all commercial marketing communications are ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’. Media are required to abide by the Code and not to publish an advertisement or conduct a promotion which contravenes Code rules. The ASAI Code covers commercial marketing communications and sales promotions in all media in Ireland including digital (online banners, websites and social platforms), print, outdoor, radio, TV, leaflets/brochures, and direct marketing.

Check out www.asai.ie for more details and to also access a copy of the 2022 ASAI Annual Report.

To keep up to date on ASAI activity, follow the organisation on Twitter @THE_ASAI