Advertising watchdog expands ad visibility
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has published its annual report, laying out its use of AI and tech-assisted tools in identifying misleading advertisements across the UK.
The report predicts over 10 million advertisements will be assessed by the watchdog’s in-house machine learning models in 2024 – up from 3 million in 2023. With greater visibility over advertisements, marketers will be forced to take greater care to ensure advertisements remain compliant.
The tools have expanded the watchdog’s visibility of online advertising, allowing experts to make informed decisions to tackle irresponsible ads, the report said.
“The report highlights how we have prioritised proactive regulatory projects, further shifting away from complaints-led investigations towards front-foot ASA-led monitoring and enforcement action,” it added.
Following its strategy ‘AI-assisted, collective ad regulation’ that launched last year, the tools have helped the ASA tackle societal concerns in areas such as sustainability claims and greenwashing.
Guy Parker, chief executive at ASA, said: “It helps us to remain flexible and adapt quickly to safeguard the interests of consumers and citizens, especially the young and vulnerable, in the rapidly changing digital landscape.”
In 2023, the report revealed the ASA received 39,034 complaints about 25,041 ads, up from previous years.