These rules are intended to prevent the abuse of people’s charitable impulses. Charity advertisements or advertisements that feature charities should treat with care and discretion any subjects likely to arouse strong emotions. Although audiences are generally more tolerant of potentially distressing treatments when the objectives of an ad are charitable, sensitivity is nevertheless required especially in relation to younger audiences.
If it is relevant, broadcasters should take care to comply with Section 5: Children, Section 7: Political and Controversial Matters, Section 9: Environmental Claims, Section 15: Faith, Religion and Equivalent Systems of Belief, and Section 32: Scheduling.
Advertisements must comply with the requirements of the Charities Act 1993 (as amended) and all relevant data protection legislation. For information on the Data Protection Act 1998 go to: www.ico.gov.uk
Rules in this section regulate charity advertisements and not the charities themselves, which are regulated by the Charity Commission (England and Wales) www.charitycommission.gov.uk, The Department for Social Development (Northern Ireland) www.dsdni.gov.uk, and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (Scotland) www.oscr.org.uk
The rules apply to advertisements for charities (which include charitable bodies) and advertisements for other products and services that promote the needs or objectives of charities.
16.1 Radio Central Copy Clearance – Radio broadcasters must ensure advertisements subject to this section are centrally cleared.
16.2 Advertising is acceptable only from:
| CLEARCAST GUIDANCE Clearcast requires sight of confirmation from the relevant UK authority that individual advertisers have charitable status. Advertisers may include Charity Commission registration numbers in their advertisements but are not required to. |
16.3 Advertisements seeking donations for, or promoting the needs or objectives of a charitable body must not:
16.4 If the ad states that payment may be made by credit or debit card, the donor’s right to have any payment of £100 or more refunded must be stated.
| CLEARCAST GUIDANCE In practice, this rule means that if a viewer makes a payment for a product that includes a donation to charity they may request a full refund if that request is received within seven days. |
Rules that apply to references to charities in other advertisements
16.5 Advertisements by non-charity advertisers which promote the needs or objects of charitable bodies, or offer to assist them, are only acceptable if the bodies would be acceptable advertisers in their own right under rule 16.2.
16.6 Advertisements that include an offer to donate money to charity must:
| CLEARCAST GUIDANCE Advertisements that claim to “support” specific charities are not the same as those that claim to “donate”. When advertisers claim to support a charity, Clearcast asks for confirmation that they have the permission of identified charities to use their name in advertising. No implication of donations to the charity should be implied if none are given. |
16.7 Broadcasters must hold evidence that each charity has agreed to the proposed ad.
16.8 Advertisements for medicinal products may offer to donate money to charity but must not be likely to encourage indiscriminate, unnecessary or excessive purchases of medicinal products. Advertisements must state the basis on which the contribution will be calculated. See also Section 11: Medicines, Medical Devices, Treatments and Health
16.9 Where a promotion states or implies that part of the price paid for goods or services will be given to a charity or cause, the ad must state the actual amount or percentage of the price that will be paid to the charity or cause, for example, “£1 per sale” or “10% of the purchase price”.
