the ASA is there to make sure all advertisements are legal, decent, honest and truthful.

they are independent of both the Government and the advertising industry and they are recognised by the Government, the courts and other regulators such as the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Ofcom as the body to deal with complaints about advertising.

their work includes acting on and investigating complaints as well as proactively monitoring and taking action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing.

Just one complaint can lead to an ad being withdrawn and they’ve made sure the complaints procedure is as quick and easy as possible. If they uphold a complaint about an ad, the advertiser must withdraw or amend the ad and not use the advertising approach again.