PRESS RELEASE  ASAI Annual Report 2013

At the 33^rd   Annual General Meeting of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) held today, Mr. Sean O’Meara, Chairman, in his statement in the Annual Report presented at the meeting, referred to the protection that the regulatory role of the ASAI provides to consumers and responsible members of the advertising industry. 

The  Chairman also referred to the general review of the Code that commenced with a publicity campaign in October 2013.  He thanked the advertising industry members involved in the campaign for providing their services without charge and expressed satisfaction with the level of responses received to the public consultation programme which followed the publicity campaign.

The ASAI resolved 1,232 formal complaints in 2013.  This resulted in 65 advertisements being found to be in breach of the ASAI Code by the independent Complaints Committee. In 2013, as in other years, the principal reason advertisements were found to be in breach of the Code was because they were considered to be misleading.  68% of the complaints made were on the basis that an advertisement was misleading with almost 20% made on the basis that an advertisement was offensive.

In relation to the media in which the advertisements complained of  appeared, once again digital media formed the largest group at 575 complaints.  Complaints relating to broadcast media (TV and radio combined) were at 353.  For a number of years, broadcast  media had given rise to the largest number of advertisements objected to.

Details of complaints for the significant sectoral  groups are provided at the end of this release and in greater detail in the report. The number of complaints received at 1,302 represents a drop of 973 complaints compared to 2012   and is accounted for by the just 900 complaints concerning three advertisements received in 2012.  The complaints level in 2013 is consistent with the levels received in years prior to 2012.

For further information contact:

ASAI – Tel: 01 613 7040.

The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) is the self-regulatory body set up by the advertising industry, including advertisers, agencies and media companies, to promote the highest standards of commercial advertising and to enforce the Code  of Standards for Advertising, Promotional and Direct Marketing in Ireland, full details of which are available on ASAI’s website at 

Case Reports on adjudications of the independent Complaints Committee of the ASAI are released in periodic Complaints Bulletins during the year and are also posted on the ASAI website.

Complaints by Sector

A copy of our Annual Report is available in the publications section.