D1 - Squack Legal Report

Squack Advertisements Legal and Ethical

Legal and Ethical

Although my adverts and brand are designed to be unconventional and silly, however I've still tried to follow any legal or ethical issues in order to keep the brand alive and create a good impression for the beginning product. The brand might do more daring or risky stuff in the future, but for now, this is how I avoided any legal and ethical controversies.

Legal

Copyright is the ownership of an intellectual property and how its distributed, changed or used. An example of copyright infringement would be the battle between Google and Apple in which Steve Jobs claimed the Android as a stolen product. I easily avoided this legal issue because the characters and assets in my advertising are fully original and now owned by anyone. Even ideas such as the rubber duck are public domain, meaning anyone can use the character in their product. Other aspects such as layout, colors and graphics are all original as well and don't copy or follow the same format as another brand. Any assets that don't belong to me, such as music or fonts will be asked for permission by the original creator, to avoid theft or copyright. 

Speaking of permissions, production aspects such as locations for sets, models used and equipment for recording are all asked for by whoever owns said item. This is to avoid many other individual crimes such as trespassing or theft, but can also be for safety and production. For example, if a location is dangerous to shoot on, like a cliff, or a piece of equipment is heavy, like a tracking camera, I'd need to ask permission to use these as well ask risk assess what can be done to keep safe. Permissions can also link to other digital media would be royalties, which require no permission, and copyrighted material, which requires permission from the creator.

Royalties are a fee paid by a producer to own a media product. This is different to copyright as once royalties have been paid, the property officially belongs to the buyer and can be used in any way. Royalty free property is media that's not labeled to be owned meaning it doesn't need to be paid or asked for by permission. I may use royalty free music in the background of my TV advertisement or I could buy music of my own, since I'm unskilled at creating songs. The same thing occurred with the font I used for my brand as it's a royalty free download that anyone can use. Examples of royalty free sites would be Bensounds for music and DaFont for word art.

Not following these laws in media could result in a cease and desist from an opposing company or other regulators like ASA. It could get the company into trouble which results in distrust with an audience.

Ethical

Ethical issue are just as important to assess as legal issues as it can determine how an audience sees the product. Ethics are what's scientifically thought as right or wrong, so it's important to make a brand feel mostly right, in order to appeal to a just as morally right audience. Ethically wrong examples of advertising would include:

- Lying about a product

- Exaggerating about a product

- Slandering another brand

- Advertising in poor taste

Offensive advertisements are used to insult a person or group of people in order to gain a negative reaction, or positive if applied to people who oppose said group. Examples of offensive behavior would be stereotyping, misrepresenting a group or degrading someone for something that can't be helped. This is seen as ethically wrong and insulting, which is why I will avoid offending anyone in my advertisements. At most, my adverts will contain harmless teasing that's funny but not antagonistic.

Language and behavior is also an important consideration with an advertisement. It can control how an influenced audience reacts or can even make them copy what they see. It's important, especially on daytime advertising, to have normal, civil or upbeat language and behavior that doesn't inflict harm onto others either verbally or physically. If that is shown, then it has to be shown in a negative way with characters or people who are portrayed as bad.

This can also apply to any violent behavior either comedic or serious. If this is shown in front of a child, it could influence them to copy the acts done on television, or nullify them from aggressive behavior. Violence can range from realistic recorded fighting like to slapstick cartoon fighting like loony toons, but both make an impact no matter. My advertisement will somewhat contain slapstick cartoon violence, however it wont be shown through the advertisement and will only be implied, not actually showing anything graphic or harmful.

Representation is the act of portraying a group of people, usually minorities, in a piece of media. This must be done with great care to prevent offending the culture or group of people. Representation is a great way to make others feel included without signaling out a group of people, and it can be easily done by including said group of people in the advertising and product. Although Squack doesn't contain any representation in its advertising, it's not out of neglect for any group of people. This is because no people are shown in any of the advertising for Squack; the only rubber ducks and the product are shown. This is to show how individual the brand is from anyone in particular making it feel new and alien. To an extent, having no one in the advertisement makes in inclusive to everyone as they can be imagined having the drink without any restraints on appearance or culture.