The Guidance clarifies the spirit in which the rules must be interpreted, particularly the rule that requires ads to be responsible to the audience and to society. It provides clear warning that ads risk breaching this rule if they suggest loans are a suitable means of addressing ongoing financial concerns; condone non-essential or frivolous spending; or unacceptably distort the serious nature of payday loan products.
The Guidance suggests that animation, catchy upbeat jingles and humorous themes are used with care, and proposes phrases to help payday loan advertisers communicate reasonable benefits of the product, e.g. "It helped out as my boiler was broken and I was two weeks away from pay day".
Additionally, no ad may directly exhort children to purchase a product or to ask others to do so for them.
Broadcasters are currently required to exercise responsible judgements on the scheduling of ads and avoid unsuitable juxtapositions between advertising material and programmes, including children’s programmes.
BCAP will now hold a public consultation to determine if the potential harm and risk factors posed by TV ads for payday loans are appropriately addressed by the current combination of content rules, scheduling rules and the new Guidance launched today, or if more needs to be done to restrict the TV scheduling of ads for short-term, high-cost loans.
