Rules and Regulations: What to Know as a Producer for a TV Commercial
Since this is my first real job as a producer of a commercial that is supposed to be fit for broadcast, I felt that I should read up on the specific requirements that come with broadcasting commercials in the UK, along with the rules and guidelines that the Nahemi Kodak competition is placing on our entries specifically.
Thus, I started the research to further broaden my knowledge on commercials and to ensure that our entry was able to be hold to good taste and standard and was furthermore not being disqualified from the competition due to a blunder. And here they come!
The Nahemi Kodak Rules
To start at the beginning, the four-page document we obtained containing the Nahemi Kodak Rules state the broad, general rules for the competition which are enlisted in the following for reasons of brevity:
Creating an advert that is exactly 30 seconds long and
Shot in an aspect ratio of 16:9 with 25 frames per second
Without any additional footage or library footage, but instead
Originating from only ONE roll of film stock
That is ordered through Nahemi/Kodak by November 23rdat the latest and which
Can be chosen from the following options
Vision 2 500T
Vision 2 250D
Vision 2 200T and
Vision 2 100T.
It is furthermore not allowed to publish the clip online without prior written permission.
The entry must conform to the UK broadcast regulations and
Must be handed in by 25thof February 2019 at the latest, with
Official entry forms, obtained copyright clearance, and a music cue sheet.
In addition to these rules, we are allowed to digitally alter and manipulate the footage in post, such as adding titles, colour correction and colour grading. However, we are admonished to submit an entry unless we want our programme to pay for the reel provided by Nahemi Kodak and only students are allowed to work on that project. We are, however, prohibited to contact the clients or their brand agencies providing the briefs ourselves, which means that we have to go through our programme leader and Nahemi Kodak, if we wanted to obtain, say, products for our commercials.
Furthermore, as a part of how our module and the competition is structured, each crew has to provide a team leader (which is usually the producer, aka me in this case), who will henceforth pose as the main point of contact.
I then moved onto research into the UK broadcast regulations to make sure that, content-wise, our commercial was not breaching any of the rules and guidelines as set by the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority).
The UK Code of Broadcast Advertising
Since our commercial will promote a vegan, savoury snack bar, for this purpose, it is placed in a forest/wooden area, depicting the film set of a snack bar commercial falling apart due to bad production planning and actor’s rage. Here, an actor is quitting his job on set because he is given the separated, bad-tasting ingredients of a snack bar, instead of the snack bar itself, thereby jeopardising an entire commercial production and forcing the narrator to sell the product amidst the ensuing chaos.
With this script and themes at hand, it seemed advisable to look up all the areas and themes that we would be touching upon within our commercial and check whether we would actually be endangered to break any of the guidelines the ASA has set for us. In this regard and after a quick skim of the contents page of the ASA codes, I’ve looked at the possibly relevant sections for our commercial, which are:
Recognition of Advertising
Misleading advertising
Food, food supplements and associated health or nutrition claims
Recognition of Advertising
For a quick reference to understand what qualifies as ‘Recognition of Advertising’, I read this section to understand how to properly get the message across that what we produce is a commercial in its own regard and not ambiguous in its message. This was especially relevant, since the section ‘Recognition of Advertising’ clearly states that commercials need to be careful not to be easily confusable with editorial content on any channel, ‘editorial content’ thereby meaning television programmes and television services (BCAP Code, p.12).
Furthermore, ‘Advertisements must be obviously distinguishable from editorial content, especially if they use a situation, performance or style reminiscent of editorial content, to prevent the audience being confused between the two. The audience should quickly recognise the message as an advertisement.’ (BCAP Code, 2.1, p.12) This, I personally found important for our production as we are currently designing our commercial to display as close a film production as possible, thereby somewhat touching upon the visual aspect of displaying editorial content such as the shoot of a documentary, interview or vox pops.
However, upon closer investigation, I determined that this would be a rather improbable issue to have since the nature of our commercial itself is highly self-reflective and comedic, making fun of itself and of commercial productions in general. Given that, I assume that the general audience would be able to recognise the narrative of the commercial as a meta-commentary on commercials itself and not confuse it with a TV programme.
However, looking at number 1 and 2 on my list, I feel I need to elaborate on my choice of looking more closely at these sections as it might confuse the reader: Since commercials – to my mind – are mostly playing with unfulfilled expectations (or at least usually more promising than the final product often turns out to be – see the outward appearance of any given burger from any given major brand), I wanted to check on the definition and outlines of what constitutes as ‘misleading advertising’ before venturing any further.
Misleading Advertising
Looking at the section of ‘Misleading advertising’, it stated that commercials ‘must not materially mislead or be likely to do so’ (BCAP Code, 3.1, p.15) and ‘must not mislead consumers by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.’ (BCAP Code, 3.2, p.15)
However, ‘[o]bvious exaggerations (“puffery”) and claims that the average consumer who sees the advertisement is unlikely to take literally are allowed, provided they do not materially mislead.’ (BCAP Code, 3.4, p.15)
This, I found highly interesting for us, as it somewhat determines the final lines that our narrator will be delivering while holding a mock-up product of that snack bar. This will require our scriptwriter Lynley to stay as close to the brief as possible while not inadvertedly claiming that the snack bar does more than it realistically can.
Which is difficult, regarding the fact that we have not yet laid eyes on the real thing, could not taste it yet and furthermore did not get any additional information as to its nutritional value or its claims of being vegan and healthy. However, in regard to the prop of the snack bar, both Chloe as the producer of Sweeney Todd and I made sure that the dimensions and the size of the prop will not exceed the dimensions and sizes of other snack bars on the market.
Misleading Advertising and Competitions
Furthermore, since we are roughly comparing the separate ingredients of a snack bar to the snack bar itself, I also wanted to double-check that we were thus not breaking any codes or rules in regard to (unfair) competition if we (in-)advertedly claimed that the ingredients chosen are inferior to the final product.
From the legal practice of my late father and his tales of unusual and/or funny court rulings in Germany, I knew that it was not only not allowed in German commercials to compare your brand (name) to another, purportedly inferior brand (name), but that, in some instances, it was already considered falling under unfair competition if you compared the bare ingredients to the final product, like we would be doing in our commercial.
However, looking at the BCAP codes, these seem to allow for comparative advertising, which is radically different to the practice in Germany. For the BCAP codes not only allow for ‘objective superiority claims [in regard to] the aspect of the product or service’ (BCAP Code, p.20), but also for comparisons with an identifiable competitor, as stated in the following extracts:
‘Advertisements that include a comparison with an identifiable competitor must not mislead, or be likely to mislead, consumers about either the advertised product or service or the competing product or service.’ (BCAP Code, 3.33, p.20)
‘Advertisements must compare products or services meeting the same need or intended for the same purpose.’ (BCAP Code, 3.34, p.20)
‘Advertisements must objectively compare one or more material, relevant, verifiable and representative feature of those products or services, which may include price.’ (BCAP Code, 3.35, p.20)
‘Advertisements must not create confusion between the advertiser and its competitors or between the advertiser's product or service, trade mark, trade name or other distinguishing mark and that of a competitor.’ (BCAP Code, 3.36, p.20)
To me, that was a massive learning curve, as I realised that this would allow for much more liberty in advertising and creating narratives for commercials.
Food, Food Supplements and Associated Health or Nutrition Claims
Looking now at number 2, ‘Food, food supplements and associated health or nutrition claims’, this was the major one for our production as we are supposed to advertise a savoury, vegan, and healthy snack bar that comes with no added sugar and preservatives, some of these claims which were also printed on the front of the snack bar and thus already being reproduced on the mock up. Browsing through that section, it became immediately apparent that this has previously been a hot topic by the way it was prefaced by a disclaimer that ran as follows:
‘Public health policy increasingly emphasises good dietary behaviour and an active lifestyle as a means of promoting health. Commercial product advertising cannot reasonably be expected to perform the same role as education and public information in promoting a varied and balanced diet but should not undermine progress towards national dietary improvement by misleading or confusing consumers or by setting a bad example, especially to children. The spirit, as well as the letter, of the rules in this section applies to all advertisements that promote, directly or indirectly, a food or soft drink product.’ (BCAP Code, p.60)
This disclaimer was immediately followed by the statement, that food commercials are not allowed to make non-authorised nutrition claims or health claims, as regulated in the EU Register, nutrion claims being related to any information about ‘the energy (calorific value) (…) at a reduced or increased rate’ (BCAP, p.61) as well as ‘nutrients or other substances (…) in reduced or increased proportions’ (BCAP, p.61) and health claims being any claim that ‘implies that a relationship exists between a food category, a food or one of its constituents and health.’ (BCAP, p.61)
This was now a bit problematic for us, as we do have the explicit statement in the commercial brief, that this snack bar was ‘healthy’, ‘vegan’, and ‘without added sugar and preservatives’, without giving us any access to evidence supporting such claims. Which is why I then advised Lynley to take any of these claims out of the script and revert back to less problematic claims.
A Glance at ‘Children’
Finally, since we will most likely not be using and/or casting children, and since our product is not aimed at children or adolescents in general, I merely browsed through that section.
However, I did so in order to get a feel for the delineation between and the definition of ‘aimed at children’ to avoid any fallacies in that regard. In regard to children, it first and foremost stated that ‘[c]hildren must be protected from advertisements that could cause physical, mental or moral harm’ (BCAP Code, p.27) a child being ‘someone under 16’ years of age (BCAP Code, p. 27).
Furthermore, ‘[a]dvertisements must not condone, encourage or unreasonably feature behaviour that could be dangerous for children to emulate. (…) This rule is not intended to prevent advertisements that inform children about dangers or risks associated with potentially harmful behaviour.’ (BCAP Code, 5.2, p.27) Looking at this rules, I regarded this section to be even less applicable to us, and not a problem at all for our production, regarding the way our narrative is scripted (with no harmful situations or innuendos at all).
The German ‘Werberat’
After looking at the reality of entering our commercial in the Nahemi Kodak Awards AND adhering to the British Broadcasting Code, I was naturally interested in the rules and guidelines that are in enforced in Germany, especially by the Deutsche Werberat, the ‘German Standards Advertising Council’.
Already at a first glance, you can tell that – apart from the section on competitions – the German counterpart is much more loose than the UK one. This can already be seen in the fact that, while the BCAP Code is considered a code with proper rules to follow, the document of the German Werberat’s ‘Leitfaden’ literally translates into ‘General Guidelines’ for broadcasting commercials in Germany that works on a basis of voluntary self-regulation. While the BCAP Code fills a staggering 144 pages with 30 different product sections, the German equivalent only offers about 54 pages, covering a mere 15 product sections in total.
This ‘Leitfaden’ is considered to be applied across all media and to all forms of commercial communication, both online and offline. It is, however, not responsible for commercials of or from political parties, churches or religious groups, clubs, NGO’s, societies and/or foundations. The 15 different product sections are thus divided into:
‘Ground Rules’, in turn subdivided into:
‘Horror’
‘Erotica’
‘Infringement of Religious Feelings’
‘Depiction of Dead Bodies’
‘Violent, Aggressive, and/or Antisocial Behaviour’ and
‘Commercials with High Risk of Imitation’
‘Discrimination’
Origin
Race
Age
Appearance and
Sexuality
‘Children and Adolescents’
‘Food’
‘Alcohol’
‘Lotteries and Gambling’
‘Commercials about or featuring VIPs’
‘The Application of Traffic Sounds’
‘Tire Commercials’ and
‘High Risk Commercials’.
In general, the ‘Leitfaden’ states that commercials may not betray the consumer’s trust, may not exploit inexperience or lack of knowledge, and must not harm children or adolescent either physically or mentally. No form of discrimination will be accepted, the reduction of a person to a mere sexual object is forbidden and commercials may not condone anti-social or aggressive behaviour, may cause no fear, and may not exploit suffering or misfortune to advertise for a product or service.
Finally, since it seems that the German guidelines are rather aiming at the spirit of any given commercial than delineating explicit (negative) examples like its UK counterpart does in verbum, it seems to be more normative in nature than the BCAP Code. However, the ‘Leitfaden’ offers a rough visual guide as to how certain commercials are evaluated in regard to their respective guidelines:
Sadly, in regard to the lack of influence of the German ‘Werberat’ onto the German broadcasting landscape and the explicit emphasis on voluntary self-regulation, the German guidelines rather seem like a toothless tiger to me.
My Application So Far
Since we are still at the early stages of pre-production, and most of the information given was of rather technical nature that is not required to be settled as of now, there is currently not much to do in regard to obeying the rules, apart from noting them and revisiting them regularly in the course of this module and the production of our commercial.
The only thing I could do now was to prepare the Offical Entry Form as far as possible and to fill out and send the Stock Order Form for the required Vision 2 250D film stock and send them to our programme leader for further transmission to Nahemi Kodak.
Regarding the issue of the health and nutrition claims, I have already advised Lynley to revert to less problematic claims within her script as long as we don’t have written evidence of the beneficial effect of said snack bar. However, as the mock-up already has these claims on them, we need to make sure that they are either made intelligible by way of framing or that our actor will cover these claims on the top of the packaging by the way of holding them or covering them with his fingers.
In the end, I feel like I successfully evaluated our commercial and possible fallacies of it according to the BCAP Code, and am now more prepared and informed about the possibilities of our commercial. Whilst we will most likely be able to steer clear of most issues, I will need to take care of the health and nutrition claims that our client wants to make with this product and ensure that this is further reflected in all stages of production.
References:
ASA and CAP Website (2018) Homepage [online] https://www.asa.org.uk [Accessed on 24 November 2018]
Deutscher Werberat (n.d.) Digitaler Leitfaden Werbekodex/Digital Guideline Code of Practice [online] https://www.werberat.de/werbekodex [Accessed on 24 November 2018]
Deutscher Werberat (2018) Homepage [online] https://www.werberat.de [Accessed on 24 November 2018]
Nahemi/Kodak (2018) Nahemi/Kodak Commercial Awards Rules 2018-2019 [online] moodle.northernart.ac.uk [Accessed on 24 November 2018]
The UK Code of Broadcast Advertising (n.d.) The BCAP Code [online] [Accessed on 24 November 2018]