For Advertisers
About the Pre-Vetting Service
The AAPS Service began in 1992. It currently provides a valuable, confidential user-pays service to alcohol advertisers by assessing proposed advertisements against the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code at an early stage of campaign development.
This provides some level of assurance, but no guarantee, against the possibility (and costs) of an advertisement being later ordered out of the marketplace – via the independent ABAC complaint processes.
To encourage the frank exchange of views within the Service, any opinion expressed by a pre-vetter in respect to a matter which is submitted for pre-vetting is confidential to the advertising agency/advertiser, the pre-vetter and the representative of their respective industry association (if any).
Periodically, briefing sessions are held for advertisers to become more familiar with The ABAC Scheme. These are arranged by The Communications Council Limited (the Council). In the first instance, you may contact the Council to express interest in future events.
Guidance notes have been prepared to assist advertisers and agencies in interpreting the Code and its intentions, these are available for download here. It may be useful for new users of the scheme to spend some time reading through the Adjudications to see how some of the issues raised by past advertisements have been dealt with by the independent Adjudications Panel.
General statement by the Management Committee on the relationship between:
- The ABAC Code which sets out the standards for alcohol advertising
- Determinations by the ABAC Adjudication Panel, which define the Code
- The Guidance Notes, which have no status other than to assist advertisers (and other stakeholders including pre-vetters) to understand the Code
Where conflict exists between the Code and the Guidance Notes, the Code must prevail. The Code is defined by written Determinations issued by the Adjudication Panel. Consequently both pre-vetting ‘convention’ and the Guidance Notes themselves will periodically need to be adjusted to ensure they accurately reflect the Determinations issued by the Adjudication Panel.
How to Use the Service
Complete the form provided below in PDF or Word format and telephone the Chief Pre-Vetter (details on form) to establish who is on duty for this service. Then, send them your material accompanied by the form. It’s as simple as that.
Important: You must telephone the pre-vetter before sending any material.
Invoicing
This is a user-pays service. The Pre-Vetter will invoice your client through the ABAC Scheme.
Please click here for the AAPS Application form in PDF format
or
Please click here for the AAPS application form in a Microsoft Word document format