Advertising Standards Authority

Organization founded by the UK advertising industry in 1962 to promote higher standards of advertising in the media. It regulates the content of advertisements, sales promotions, and direct marketing in the UK, applying separate standards codes for television, radio, and all other types of advertising. Advertising in the UK being a self-regulating industry, the ASA is financed by the advertisers, who pay a 0.1% supplement on the cost of display advertisements and airtime and a 0.2% levy on Royal Mail mailsort contracts. It recommends to the media those advertisements which might breach codes of practice and can refer any such breach to the Office of Fair Trading or Office of Communications (Ofcom).