ASA and CAP

The ASA and the CAP have a wealth of resources to help you to understand what you can do to advertise your products and services.

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ASA and CAP

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) are, essentially, watchdogs (https://www.asa.org.uk/about-asa-and-cap/about-regulation/about-the-asa-and-cap.html).  They have a wealth of resources to help you to understand what you can do to advertise your products and services.  https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-and-resources/resource-library.html.

We strongly recommend that you read the piece in this link and make sure you are aware of the legislation in place to protect you, your clients and potential clients. One former ANLP member chose not to take notice of these guidelines and found themselves on the ‘wrong side’ of an ASA adjudication!

One definition of advertising is:

the techniques and practices used to bring products, services, opinions, or causes to public notice for the purpose of persuading the public to respond in a certain way toward what is advertised.”  (https://www.britannica.com/topic/advertising accessed 15/06/20)

We also believe that advertising can be anything you create in any form of written, verbal or visual media that implies “something”. You might put out on Facebook that you have found a cure for cancer and by placing it where someone else might see it, it might be implied that you are advertising the fact that you have found a cure for cancer. 

There does not have to be a commercial gain for it to be advertising…Whatever your advertising methods, make sure what you are saying is true!  Advertising is about motivating/persuading someone to buy your products or services and we encourage you, as NLP Professionals, to use your language carefully and accurately to describe what you do and how you do it.

Part of NLP is about communication and some would say that we are learning to communicate better using our NLP skills...and there are some that use the language, references and images less than ethically.  Like you as an ethical NLP Professional, we believe that use of language to manipulate others inappropriately is unethical…

Our code of ethics is clear: see the ANLP Code of Ethics here ANLP Members must not misrepresent their services or products by making claims that use misleading or untruthful language. It’s about honesty and integrity.  If we find anyone mis-using the ANLP logo to endorse their products or services in a way that misrepresents NLP, ANLP or might damage our reputation (and therefore the reputation of our Members), we take immediate action. 

Use the ASA resources to make sure you are within the rules of advertising and if you are in any doubt, consult with CAP to check what you have created.

If you have any questions or would like more information, then please use the links above to access the ASA and CAP website.