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Introduction

Some of the following complaints were received by the legacy regulators prior to the commencement of Ofcom. Under the terms of the Communications Act 2003, they became the responsibility of Ofcom on 29 December 2003. The Communications Act allows for the Codes of the legacy regulators to remain in force until such time as Ofcom has developed its own Codes. These will be published at the end of 2004 following a full public consultation. The Codes currently in force for advertising are:

• Advertising and Sponsorship Code
  Radio Authority
• Advertising Standards Code
  Independent Television Commission
• Rules on the Amount and Scheduling of Advertising
  Independent Television Commission

These are all available on the Ofcom website: www.ofcom.org.uk The cases have been considered against the above Codes.

• Some advertisements will have breached the relevant Code (Upheld).
• Others will not have breached the Code (Not upheld).
• However, there may be occasions where Ofcom recognises that a broadcaster has taken appropriate action in response to an issue (for instance, the broadcaster may recognise that an error has occurred and taken responsible steps to rectify it). Ofcom will consider that these complaints have been resolved. But even when such action has been taken, Ofcom may still consider it appropriate to find that the advertisement breached the Code due to the seriousness of the issues involved.

The layout of the report reflects these distinctions.

The following table summarises complaints and interventions arising from breaches of the Rules on the Amount and Separation of Advertising:

Licensee	Sales House	Comments/Explanation
Grampian	Carlton	Artist separation - human error
C4 E4	C4 E4	Inappropriate Scheduling: A Foster's advertisement was given a post 7.30pm restriction after complaints that it was unsuitable for broadcast before this time were upheld. However, the BACC did not update their system and the broadcasters scheduled it incorrectly on a few occasions before 7.30pm.

• Upheld cases
  Slots of Fun, Goldshield Vitality, Boots Triple Points, Your Guide To A Beautiful Body
• Not upheld cases
  British Heart Foundation -- Euro RSCG WNEK Gosper

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