The Stage

ASA launches agent ‘name and shame’ list

Published Wednesday 2 March 2011 at 16:35 by Matthew Hemley

Casting companies using their websites to make false claims about the services they offer risk being named and shamed from this month, following an extension of online advertising regulations.

Starting this week, the Advertising Standards Authority will regulate all marketing communications online, meaning that casting organisations using their websites to make claims about their services - such as purporting to have provided extras to particular TV programmes - will have to provide proof should a complaint be made about them.

Any that are found to have breached advertising rules could be forced to remove the offending material and be subjected to what the ASA has called an “enhanced name and shame policy”.

An ASA spokesman told The Stage this would see companies found in breach of the advertising code highlighted on the ASA’s website, adding this would show up in Google searches that people might make about them.

He said this would create “strong negative publicity” around such companies.

Campaigners hope the measures will prevent companies making false claims in order to get people to sign up to their services, which often require payment.

BECTU national official Spencer MacDonald said the ASA’s extended remit would help its campaign in “tackling disputed adverts from companies who sell a distorted image of the audio visual industry”.

Campaigner Clive Hurst, who has been responsible for bringing complaints against several companies’ adverts in newspapers, said the new remit provides an “opportunity to ensure that acting/modelling agency websites tell the truth”. “Until now, agency websites could make any claim they wanted to entice applicants to pay up-front fees. I think we are finally starting to turn the corner towards better standards,” he added.

In the past, numerous complaints have been upheld by the ASA regarding material casting companies have placed in newspapers.

In 2008, for example, casting agency Hidden Faces was censured by the ASA for distributing misleading adverts, in which it claimed to have provided actors for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five and Sky productions. The claim was challenged and the ASA found the agency had not been able to prove it had provided extras for three of the five credits cited.

The ASA spokesman told The Stage that companies whose material was found to be misleading in newspapers should be aware similar claims made on their websites will now be “problematic” for them.

He said each complaint would be handled on a case by case basis, but added that repeat offenders could be named in the ASA’s own adverts online, which would highlight continued non-compliance.

Equity spokesman Martin Brown welcomed the new regulations, describing them as an “interesting development for the entertainment industry”.

However, he added: “Whether it will be of benefit to individual performers who feel they have been let down or even cheated by unscrupulous online casting websites remains to be seen, as the ASA has no statutory powers to impose penalties.”