Advertising Standards Bureau

The Advertising Standards Bureau administers a national system of advertising self-regulation through the Advertising Standards Board and the Advertising Claims Board.

The self-regulation system recognises that advertisers share a common interest in promoting consumer confidence in and respect for general standards of advertising.

The Advertising Standards Board provides a free public service of complaint resolution. It provides determinations on complaints about most forms of advertising in relation to issues including the use of language the discriminatory portrayal of people concern for children portrayals of violence sex sexuality and nudity health and safety and marketing of food and beverages to children.

An Independent Reviewer provides the community and advertisers a channel through which they can appeal decisions made by the Advertising Standards Board. The review process is available to the advertiser and the person who originally made a complaint.

The Advertising Claims Board provides a competitive complaint resolution service. It is designed to determine complaints involving issues of truth accuracy and legality of advertising on a user pays cost recovery basis. For more information about the Claims Board see Industry Guide.

Complaints

You can make a complaint to the Advertising Standards Bureau about an advertisement which raises an issue under Section 2 of the AANA Code of Ethics the AANA Code for Advertising to Children the AANA Food & Beverages Advertising & Marketing Communications Code the Australian Food and Grocery Council's Responsible Children's Marketing Initiative the Australian Quick Service Restaurant Industry Initiative for Responsible Advertising and Marketing to Children or the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries Code. You can find more more information on the Codes here.

Before submitting a complaint please check here to see if your complaint is a matter that the Advertising Standards Bureau can consider or that should be referred elsewhere.

How to complain

Lodge a complaint using the online complaints form.

-:- All complaints must be submitted in writing.
-:- A complainant must provide details of the advertisement that are sufficient enough to identify the particular advertisement in question.
-:- A mailing address is also necessary in order to contact the complainant in regards to the progress of their complaint.
-:- Separate complaints regarding different advertisements must be submitted separately for expedient processing.