All You Need to Know About Banned Commercials

What are Banned Commercials?

Banned commercials are any television commercials that are taken off the air due to the presence of an egregious violation. All television commercials in the United States are regulated by the FCC; as a result of these regulations, a television commercial must be created and delivered to mainstream audiences in compliance with these government-established regulations.

Advertising agencies and other entities that create television commercials must oblige to a number of rules which are created to protect the consumer base from receiving incorrect or dangerous information. Banned commercials are therefore any television commercial that feels to adhere to such regulations. When a television commercial is banned, it is no longer broadcasted to the public and therefore deemed inactive. Due to the failure to broadcast, banned commercials are viewed as a waste of finances as well as an ineffective advertising tool—banned commercials do not have the ability to market the underlying company’s product or service.

In addition to banned commercials instituted by the United States government, other bodies may effectively place a ban on television advertisements. The NCAA—the organization that oversees college athletics-- for example has created limits with respect to the number of beer advertisements shown during broadcasts of college sporting events.

The NCAA has requested that beer advertisers should represent less than 60 seconds of commercial time per 60 minutes of ad space. Additionally, the NCAA does not allow hard liquor advertising to be shown during the broadcast of their sporting events. As a result of these restrictions, hard liquor advertisements and those beer commercials that exceed 60 seconds of one hour of television advertisements will be considered banned commercials according to the NCAA.

Examples of Banned Commercials:

Host Selling: This restriction is placed on television commercials that are marketed towards children. The majority of children are susceptible to advertising—they will believe what is on television and take it for reality—so the FCC has placed a banned on all commercials that participate in “host selling.”

This ban prohibits the characters that appear on television from endorsing a product that in a manner that will prevent a child from distinguishing between the program and the ad itself. These types of banned commercials typically portray a good or service in a manner that is not realistic; such banned commercials will mislead children by using characters or animations that would not be present in the actual product.

Tobacco Advertisements:In January of 1971, the United States Congress effectively placed a ban on all television commercials demonstrating cigarette use or any advertisement made on television for cigarettes. As a result of this legislation, all cigarette advertisements on the television will be viewed as banned commercials.

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