For Advertisers
About the Pre-Vetting Service
The AAPS Service began in 1992. It provides a valuable, confidential user-pays service to alcohol advertisers by assessing proposed advertisements against the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code ("ABAC") 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. The assessment of a proposed advertisement against any standards, including the ABAC will necessarily involve a subjective judgment by an individual pre-vetter and as such the ABAC Adjudication Panel may occasionally have a different view and uphold a complaint against an ad which has been pre-vetted.
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. The Guidance Notes 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 Adjudication 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
Pre-process
Alcohol advertisers must be familiar with their industry’s pre-vetting requirements in relation to different media and different Codes (refer ABAC Rules and Procedures) and must brief their advertising agencies on these matters.
Advertising agencies conducting work for alcohol advertisers must ensure their employees understand AAPS processes and requirements.
Contacting the AAPS Service
Complete the AAPS application form provided below in PDF or Word format.
Establish which pre-vetter is on duty and their contact details by calling the AAPS message service on 08 8411 2158.
Telephone the duty pre-vetter to discuss timing issues, which Code(s) the material is to be pre-vetted against and manner of submission of materials (usually email). Whilst pre-vetters endeavour to have applications completed in less than 4 working days, sometimes this may not be possible. Meetings can be arranged to present materials.
Submit your materials in accordance with the duty pre-vetter’s instructions accompanied by the AAPS application form. Your application will receive a number that will be used to identify your application and this number will be used for all pre-vetting work carried out in relation to that application.
The pre-vetter on duty who accepts the advertising material from the advertiser becomes the ‘lead’ pre-vetter for the application and will manage it though the pre-vetting process until the advertisement is finally approved or rejected.
All communication with the advertiser will be via the lead pre-vetter even if another pre-vetter is involved due to a second opinion. Other advertisements in the same campaign may be submitted to the same pre-vetter to maintain consistency (unless that pre-vetter is unavailable, in which case the duty pre-vetter must be contacted).
The AAPS Service operates during normal business hours. We understand that occasionally pre-vetting may be required outside these hours but we ask that contact outside business hours is kept to a minimum. If it is anticipated that out of hours contact is necessary we ask that this is discussed prior with the relevant pre-vetter.
Submission of materials
Agencies are encouraged to send material at an early stage of development to identify possible problems before significant expense is incurred. So, whilst a pre-vetter has a right to withhold approval for an advertisement until they are satisfied that it complies, an advertiser can expect that goodwill and commonsense will be applied to the task. For example, a TVC would not change in content from the ‘offline final’, to the ‘online final’ version except for brightness of colours, clarity etc.
Rejections/ Second opinions
If an advertisement is rejected the pre-vetter will advise the advertiser and provide their reasons for rejecting the ad. Where an advertisement is rejected the advertiser may request a second opinion on the pre-vetting decision and/or may choose to revise and resubmit the advertisement.
A second opinion is an option available with the consent of, or at the request of, an advertiser. The second opinion will be provided to the lead pre-vetter in writing and will be limited to that specific element of the ad which is at issue. The second opinion will be used solely to further inform the lead pre-vetter’s consideration of the proposed advertisement.
In rare cases a second opinion may be sought by a pre-vetter when a new concept or medium is being assessed or where a pre-vetter believes they may be operating without precedent. This is necessary to maintain consistency of pre-vetter decisions but would arise infrequently.
AAPS Approval
Approval is only given for advertisements to appear in the particular media nominated by the advertiser on the AAPS application form. If subsequently the advertisement is to appear in different media, it must be re-submitted for approval for the new media.
Approval is given on the basis of the material submitted and it is the responsibility of the agency to re-submit if there are material alterations. Any proposed revisions to an existing approved advertisement must be discussed with the lead pre-vetter as to whether it needs to be re-submitted for approval as the revisions can materially change an advertisement. These revisions include, but are not limited to, editing a TV or radio ad to a longer or shorter version of the ad or changing a headline or image in a print or outdoor advertisement.
Invoicing
AAPS is a user pays service. The pre-vetter will invoice the advertiser via The ABAC Scheme. If the advertiser is not a signatory to the ABAC please discuss this with the pre-vetter.