Advertising Standards Authority

Organization founded by the UK advertising industry in 1962 to promote higher standards of advertising in the media (excluding television and radio, which have their own authority). 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 advertisements. It recommends to the media those advertisements which might breach the British Code of Advertising Practice are not published, but has no statutory power. The ASA has been criticized for not doing enough to prevent misleading advertising.