1.1

The following definitions apply to the Code and to the procedures for its implementation:

(a) The ASAI means the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland, the Board, the Complaints Committee, the Review Panel and the Executive.

(b) A marketing communication includes, but is not limited to, advertising, as well as other techniques such as promotions, sponsorships and direct marketing, and should be interpreted broadly to mean any form of communication produced directly by, or on behalf of, advertisers intended primarily to promote products, to influence the behaviour of and/or to inform those to whom it is addressed.

(c) Advertising or advertisement includes, but is not limited to, a form of marketing communication carried by the media, usually in return for payment or other valuable consideration or in a space that would generally be provided for in return for payment.

(d) An advertiser includes anyone disseminating marketing communications, including promoters and direct marketers. References to advertisers should be interpreted as including intermediaries and agencies unless the context indicates otherwise.

(e) A product can encompass goods, services, facilities, opportunities, fundraising, prizes and gifts.

(f) A consumer is anyone who is likely to see or hear a particular marketing communication, whether in the course of business or not.

(g) Unless otherwise stated in a particular provision, for the purposes of the Code, a child is anyone under 18 years of age.

(h) A claim can be direct or implied, written, verbal or visual. The name of a product can constitute a claim.

(i) Promotional marketing practices, including sales promotions, are those marketing techniques which involve the provision of direct or indirect additional benefits, usually on a temporary basis, designed to make goods or services more attractive to purchasers.

(j) A promoter is any person or body by whom a sales promotion is initiated or commissioned.

(k) An intermediary is any person or body, other than the promoter, responsible for the implementation of any form of sales promotional activity.

(l) Viral advertising is an email, text or other non-broadcast marketing communication designed to stimulate significant circulation by recipients to generate commercial or reputational benefit to the advertiser. (Viral advertisements are usually put into circulation (“seeded”) by the advertiser with a request, either explicit or implicit, for the message to be forwarded to others. Sometimes they include a video clip or a link to website material or are part of a sales promotion
campaign.)

(m) Investor relations material is information about an organisation (including its goods or services) addressed to the financial community, including shareholders and investors, as well as others who might be interested in the company’s stock or financial stability.

(n) An advertorial is an advertisement feature, announcement or promotion published or electronically broadcast in exchange for a payment or other reciprocal arrangement where the content is controlled by the advertiser.

(o) An advergame is an electronic game to promote a product or brand by the brand/product owner.

1.2

For the purposes of the Code:

(a) A word importing the singular shall be read as also importing the plural, and a word importing the plural shall be read as also importing the singular.

(b) “Person” should be construed as including legal persons and groups, as appropriate.

(c) Every word importing a reference to a gender should be construed as if it also imported any other gender, unless the contrary intention appears. This includes people who have a gender identity different to the gender assigned at birth and those people who wish to portray their gender identity in a different way to the gender assigned at birth.