To be or not to be Governed like That?: Harmful and/or Offensive Advertising Complaints in the United Kingdom’s (Self-) Regulatory Context

Kristina Auxtova; Mary Brennan; Stephen  Dunne

doi:10.1007/s10551-020-04480-x

To be or not to be Governed like That? Harmful and/or Offensive Advertising Complaints in the United Kingdom’s (Self-) Regulatory Context

Kristina Auxtova (Lead / Corresponding author)
, Mary Brennan
, Stephen Dunne

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

185 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper demonstrates how the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) governs advertising ethics with and on behalf of its members and stakeholders. Drawing on an archive of 310 non-commercial (i.e. not-for-profit and public) adjudication reports, we highlight the substantive norms and procedural mechanisms through which the ASA governs advertising complaints alleging offence and/or harm. Substantively, the ASA precludes potential normative transgressions by publishing, disseminating, consulting upon, and updating detailed codes of advertising conduct. Procedurally, the ASA adjudicates between allegations and justifications of offence and harm on a received complaint-by-complaint basis, often upon consequentialist grounds. Such consequentialism, we claim, has the effect of normalizing power imbalances between the ASA’s members, on the one hand, and wider stakeholders, on the other hand. The paper argues that, in the context of UK advertising, what Michel Foucault called the right ‘to be or not to be governed like that’ is enjoyed by relatively few subjects. Having demonstrated how UK advertising practices are governed, the paper closes with suggestions as to how they might be governed otherwise.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	425–446
Number of pages	22
Journal	Journal of Business Ethics
Volume	172
Issue number	3
Early online date	18 Mar 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04480-x
Publication status	Published - Sept 2021

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

Advertising Ethics
Advertising Regulation
Offensiveness and Harmfulness
Offensiveness and harmfulness
Advertising regulation
Advertising ethics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics and Econometrics
Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Law
General Business,Management and Accounting
Business and International Management

Access to Document

10.1007/s10551-020-04480-xLicence: CC BY

Final Published VersionFinal published version, 868 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "To be or not to be Governed like That?: Harmful and/or Offensive Advertising Complaints in the United Kingdom{\textquoteright}s (Self-) Regulatory Context",

abstract = "This paper demonstrates how the UK{\textquoteright}s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) governs advertising ethics with and on behalf of its members and stakeholders. Drawing on an archive of 310 non-commercial (i.e. not-for-profit and public) adjudication reports, we highlight the substantive norms and procedural mechanisms through which the ASA governs advertising complaints alleging offence and/or harm. Substantively, the ASA precludes potential normative transgressions by publishing, disseminating, consulting upon, and updating detailed codes of advertising conduct. Procedurally, the ASA adjudicates between allegations and justifications of offence and harm on a received complaint-by-complaint basis, often upon consequentialist grounds. Such consequentialism, we claim, has the effect of normalizing power imbalances between the ASA{\textquoteright}s members, on the one hand, and wider stakeholders, on the other hand. The paper argues that, in the context of UK advertising, what Michel Foucault called the right {\textquoteleft}to be or not to be governed like that{\textquoteright} is enjoyed by relatively few subjects. Having demonstrated how UK advertising practices are governed, the paper closes with suggestions as to how they might be governed otherwise.",

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author = "Kristina Auxtova and Mary Brennan and Stephen Dunne",

note = "This study was funded by the ESRC under Grant \#1486352 and the University of Edinburgh College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.",

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AU - Dunne, Stephen

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