Advertising checklist
- Social Desirability Ratings (SDR)

Ad agencies, consumer panels, school classes and other members of the public can use the following checklist to provide an approximate rating for particular advertisements by giving marks in response to each of the following five questions. Thus an ad can achieve a total final Social Desirability Rating ranging from 0 (exceptionally poor) through 50 (average) to 100 (exceptionally good):

'Does the ad promote habits that are liable to prove safe, healthy and desirable'

Safety

(1) To what extent does the ad promote habits that are liable to prove safe, healthy and desirable for adults or children or society in general or the environment? (Marks up to 50 for this)

Balance

(2) To what extent is the ad usefully informative, in a balanced and truthful way, rather than relying on image building or exaggeration? (Marks up to 20 for this)

Beauty

(3) To what extent does the ad enhance the quality of life through its beauty, humour or artistry? (Marks up to 10 for this)

Decency

(4) To what extent does the ad achieve its effects without gratuitously exploiting men's or women's bodies, sex, seduction or violence? (Marks up to 10 for this)

Tolerance

(4) To what extent does the ad successfully avoid using racism, class or religious divisiveness or stereotyping to achieve its effects? (Marks up to 10 for this)

- This is an early draft and readers are invited to send in their suggested improvements, or to send in clippings of ads to which they have applied these ratings, with comments, to the Institute for Social Inventions, 20 Heber Road, London NW2 6AA (tel 081 208 2853; fax 081 452 6434).
- These proposals were first drafted by Dr Andrew Herxheimer and arose from an Advertising Association President's lecture which David Puttnam gave, in which he appealed to the advertising industry to work for the common good in a much broader way than they mostly do.
- Dr Andrew Herxheimer, 9 Park Crescent, London N3 2NL (tel 081 346 5470; fax 081 346 0407).
- David Puttnam, Enigma Productions, Pinewood Studios, Pinewood Road, Iver Heath, Bucks, SLO ONH (tel 0753 630555).

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