No SMS subscription ads for kids

Yay, no more crying baby Glo Mobi ads during Harry And His Bucket Full Of Dinosaurs! :D
 
This is good news indeed. Well done to WASPA for tackling these issues head on!
 
Good but not good enough. They are still allowed to advertise to kids.. just not during certain types of programmes. IMO they shouldn't be allowed to advertise to kids full stop. In France, you are not allowed to advertise anything to children younger than 16, you're also not even allowed to have a child younger than 16 in a TV ad...

Advertising we see today is all crap thats trying to invade your head space.. mental pollution.
 
Doesn't go far enough. Kids should not be able to activate subscription services without explicit parental consent.
 
So this is only for subscription services, what about vote lines like idols, or is idols only aimed at the adult market?

The other issue I have is what are the Television networks going to replace these ads with, more Verimark and those gaud awful insurance ads.
 
Natas said:
Good but not good enough. They are still allowed to advertise to kids.. just not during certain types of programmes. IMO they shouldn't be allowed to advertise to kids full stop.
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The WASPA Code of Conduct currently says:
11.4. Marketing of subscription services to children

11.4.1. Promotions for subscription services must not appear in publications or other media specifically targeted at children.
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Of course, that doesn't stop anyone from advertising during programs that might be watched by kids and adults, but short of banning all advertising of subscriptions services, that's tricky to do.
 
hexagon said:
Doesn't go far enough. Kids should not be able to activate subscription services without explicit parental consent.
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This too is already covered (to some extent) in the WASPA Code:
11.1.6. Members must ensure that children accessing subscription services confirm that they have permission from a parent or guardian do to so.
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In practice, this is hard to police. It's tricky to tell the difference between an adult and a child pretending to be an adult in order to get, say, the latest ring tone :(.
 
What makes this ruling important is its done at broadcasting level. This was non WASPA members, and yes there are some out there, cannot get away with this.

BTW: The industry has companies who act as middlemen (act as gateways to the networks), they need to be registered with WASPA but their clients do not always register too. All this means is when Company X gets fined and they are not a WASPA member, then their aggregator needs to pay (who needs to be a WASPA member to connect to the networks).
 
While we're at it - please force these spamvertisers to adhere to a larger minimum font size as well as minimum display period, the small print is barely readable even on the biggest & best of TV's.
 
MaD said:
While we're at it - please force these spamvertisers to adhere to a larger minimum font size as well as minimum display period, the small print is barely readable even on the biggest & best of TV's.
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There are many WASPA regulations in place governing this. What gets me is the low quality font they use.

During the duration of the ad they have to display the cost. SABC is the biggest culprit here, there ad (SABC Mobile) breaks all regulations. (Being in the industry I notice these things).
 
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