ASA tagged posts

November 18, 2018,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

My 16-year-old daughter Zara loves Instagram. So does her 11-year old sister, Aviva.

I hope they don’t mind me sharing that with you! And probably millions of others like them all over the world are aimlessly scrolling through Instagram rather than doing their homework on a wet Wednesday evening when they need a break from studying or are simply bored of checking out vlogs on YouTube – another favourite pastime rather than watching TV (which they don’t).

What’s interesting is the way that, post after post, about fashion, make-up, music, games, staying healthy and what to say to boys tends to have the same captions.

With young children and teenagers, social media is pa...

December 31, 2013,  Essential Law for Marketers, Guru in a Bottle, Legal update, Marketing practice, News, Sales practice  No comments

UK-based companies will face a major shake-up in how they conduct consumer sales and marketing activities over the next 12-months in the wake of a raft of new laws and regulations emanating from the UK and European Union (EU). The following is a quick guide to some of these key legal and regulatory changes and more guidance is available in Essential Law for Marketers (2^nd edition).

Direct marketing and e-commerce practices

A radical shake up in this area is already underway as the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has signalled a number of important changes that effectively erode the reliance by marketers on an ‘opt-out’ as a strategy for driving direct marketing (DM)...

December 26, 2013,  Essential Law for Marketers, Guru in a Bottle, Marketing practice, News, Public Relations practice  No comments

Given the tendency for over-indulgence during the Festive Season it’s not surprising that some brand owners of diet plans, slimming and low fat products will think their Christmases have all come at once in the New Year as millions of us try to shake off the excesses of eating and drinking by trying to lose some weight!

Marketers may be tempted to do what Flora pro. activ (owned by Unilever) did a few years’ ago in the UK by inviting a national journalist to ‘fight the flab’ and exercise alongside a calorie controlled diet and keep a daily record of her progress.

This may sound like a great way to connect with consumers who may feel they need some encouragement to do ...

August 31, 2013,  News  No comments

This article by marketing journalist Maeve Hosea first appeared in Marketing Week on 22 August 2013

Fancy a free electric toothbrush? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Colgate’s giveaway promotion at London’s Waterloo station last month, where people could swap their old electric toothbrush for a free ProClinical model worth £169.99, ended in chaos. Hundreds of people swamped the stand, which lead to Network Rail forcing the company to shut down the promotion.