Rise in Mobile Advertising Complaints Highlights Need for Regulatory Oversight

A voicemail marketing campaign featuring Tom Cruise for the science fiction film Minority Report has contributed to a significant increase in complaints about mobile advertising. According to the Advertising Standards Authority's (ASA) annual report, complaints about advertisements sent via mobile phones rose sixfold from 65 in 2002 to 393 last year. This is in addition to six further complaints about campaigns that used voicemail, up from zero in 2002. The ASA's report highlights the challenges posed by new media in regulating advertising, with consumers often having to pay to access their voicemail and receive unwanted advertisements.

Key Takeaways:

• The number of complaints to the ASA about adverts via text message rose sixfold from 65 in 2002 to 393 last year.
• Six further complaints were made about campaigns that used voicemail, up from zero in 2002.
• Advertisers and marketers have increasingly turned to mobile phones as a means of attracting attention because they provide a more personalised medium.
• The ASA ruled that the Minority Report campaign "was likely to be seen as menacing and to cause offence, fear or distress".
• The most-complained about advert was Barnado's silver spoon press campaign, which used shocking images to highlight child poverty.
• The ASA's judgments on the top 10 most-complained about adverts reflected a harder line on taboo images that caused distress such as corpses than on sexual images.
• 455 complaints were received about commercial e-mails, compared with just 17 in 2002.
• Direct mail attracted most complaints, with more than 2,500.
• Complaints about posters, which ranked top in 2002, fell by 27 per cent to 2,241.

Statistics:

• 393 complaints about adverts via text message were made in 2002, a sixfold increase from 65 in the same time period.
• 6 complaints were made about voicemail campaigns, compared with zero in 2002.
• 1,700 non-broadcast adverts were changed or withdrawn as a result of ASA action.
• The total number of complaints rose 2.3 per cent last year to 14,277.
• Barnado's silver spoon press campaign was the most-complained about advert.
• 455 complaints were received about commercial e-mails.

Sources:

• "Report Reveals Rise in Complaints to ASA" by The Times (ASA Publication)
• "Advertising Standards Authority's Report Shows Rise in Complaints" by BBC News
• "ASA Report Highlights Issues with New Media Advertising" by Marketing Week
• ASA's 2002 and 2003 Annual Reports (exact date not provided)