Context
The ASA has published its 2025 mid-year progress report and objectives for 2026. The ASA seeks to ensure advertising is legal, decent, honest and truthful.
Key points to note and next actions
- The 2025 Advertising Pays report found that advertising and marketing industries contributed £109 billion of GVA (gross value added) to the UK economy in 2024, and that advertising supports more than 1.7 million jobs, making up 5% of all UK employment
- In 2024 alone, the ASA delivered more than 770,000 pieces of advice and training on how to comply with ASA rules. Meanwhile, it acted proportionately on issues of non-compliance by prioritising advice and informal resolution whenever possible. This approach meant that only 1% of the circa 25,000 complaint cases ASA looked into resulted in a formal ruling.
- Consumer confidence, is vital for economic growth. Consumer spending accounts for almost 63% of GDP. A recent report from Citizens Advice found that providing consumers with better information, or restricting what and how firms can advertise to consumers, improves their ability to understand the quality and appropriateness of products and services.
- ASA says that increased public awareness of the ASA system has a positive effect on people’s trust in advertising. Protecting people is at the heart of everything it does. Advertising content can cause harm, particularly to the most vulnerable, and therefore ASA rulings are important in ensuring the public can trust advertising.
- Earlier this year, the Government published the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, identifying the creative industries as a key sector for future innovation and growth. The Creative Industries Sector Plan, published alongside it, sets out the opportunity to enhance the UK’s position as a global creative superpower and to support the advertising industry to thrive. The Creative Industries Sector Plan also identifies digital marketing as a driving force for continued growth but explains that the complex nature of the online ecosystem creates concerns around transparency and trust