Trimming Ts&Cs – Phase 2 of Global’s Consumer Trust Initiative

In February of this year, Global rolled out a project to reduce the burden of excessively long and unnecessary disclaimers in radio ads for the motoring sector. This project has now been extended to all radio advertising sectors and, from 1st December 2022, radio stations operated by Global will no longer accept ads with tags/T&Cs that are longer than 8 seconds.

Here at Radiocentre we know from our research that disclaimers that are overly long and complex aren’t helpful; in fact, the opposite can be true because listeners can “switch off” if presented with too much information. As a result this can lead them to believe that advertisers who use very long disclaimers are less trustworthy. Also there’s a danger that very long disclaimers will get speeded up in production in an attempt to shave off a few seconds to allow more space for the creative. That’s a problem, because the ASA could rule that listeners have been misled, even if all of the important information is in the disclaimer, if it’s read at such a speed that it’s difficult to both hear and comprehend. We know that listeners can rely on radio ads to be honest and truthful and we want listeners to know this too.

Since Global began their Consumer Trust Initiative, the clearance team has been working collaboratively to ensure that ads remain engaging and credible whilst, most importantly, remaining within the BCAP Code rules and regulatory policy. As the initiative will soon expand to encompass all advertising sectors by December, we’re taking the initiative now to help make sure that our customers are aware of the upcoming changes by including a message about the changes with all script clearances for ads with longer disclaimers. To help smooth the transition, we’re also making sure that customers and advertisers know that we’re available to advise on how to reduce unnecessary text, provided the Code rules are not compromised. When we spot a script containing a Ts&Cs tag that we think is likely to go over Global’s 8 second threshold, we proactively contact the submitter to offer advice on how to cut the Ts&Cs down to size.

Want to know if we can shorten the legals for you? Get in touch.