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Ads aimed at children get stricter guidelines

Expensive toys (over €30) must state their price on TV and radio – this and other rules come into force on Monday.

THE BROADCASTING AUTHORITY of Ireland has published a revised code for advertisements today, tightening up guidelines on especially those targeting children.

Two revised codes come into effect from next Monday, 2 May – the General Commercial Communications Code, which will now include certain product placement in programming, and the Children’s Commercial Communications Codes.

TheJournal.ie revealed on 9 March last that product placement would now be allowed on Irish TV shows – although it would be prohibited from children’s programming.

The publication of the revised Children’s code today outlines even more specifically the precautions advertisers should take when targeting children. Some of the guidelines include:

  • That advertisers “not take advantage of the natural credulity and sense of loyalty of children” by omission, exaggerated or misleading claims.
  • Words such as ‘only’ and ‘just’ are frowned upon when describing the price of a child-aimed product, as they minimise the price.
  • Expensive toys – ie, those over €30 – must have their price stated in children’s ads.
  • Ads aimed at children have to be careful not to encourage kids to exert pester pressure on adults to buy.

In another section, intriguingly entitled ‘Adults pretending to be Children’, says that the use of adults pretending to be children in ads aimed at the under-18s “must not be offensive to the dignity of children”.

The full Code is here to be inspected in detail>

Or, you could just show the kids this episode of this educational series from HBO from 1990 (subtitle: A  Kid’s Survival Guide to TV advertising). Jim Fyffe and his zany tie to the rescue:

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    Mute Maggie Elizabeth Walsh
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    Mar 5th 2012, 11:24 AM

    This law will do nothing to stop violent people being violent. It will simply take the onus off the police to sort it out, now abused men and women will be told its their fault for not doing the adequate checks in the first place.

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    Mute John Conniffe
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    Mar 5th 2012, 11:33 AM

    Seems a good idea, but I’d be very worried about all the privacy of information issues. If someone applied to gain access to information held another person’s file, what proof would the have to give to confirm that they are in a relationship with that first person? What structures would be in place to avoid misuse by marketing / profiling agencies…

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    Mute Multi talentless
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    Mar 5th 2012, 12:14 PM

    Many people know that their partners are violent long before they raise a hand to them , i know some never leave even when given the oppurtunity arises.
    I don’t think This law will change anything

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    Mute Donal McCarthy
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    Mar 5th 2012, 1:35 PM

    I think the main problem here is that the vast majority of the perpetrators of domestic violence never make it to the courts, never mind acquire a conviction for it.

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    Mute Charly Julienne
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    Mar 5th 2012, 4:45 PM

    I hate the trend of naming laws after victims. It encourages the passing of bad laws (I’m not talking about this one specifically) by appealing to emotion over reason.

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    Mute Sean Mc Avinue
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    Mar 6th 2012, 2:42 AM

    Wouldn’t you like to know the history of a car before you buy it?

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    Mute Gemma Hickey
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    Mar 6th 2012, 11:12 AM

    If some one hits you or slaps you once they will more than likely do it again, so there is no need for this law just people need to wise up and realise that if it happens once its time to get out just leve, dont ask why, dont listen to the made up excuses, just run . This law is just another way of invading privacy, anyone think what may happen in the event of a wrongful conviction, because this happens too.

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