An interesting development from the advertising sector now.

The Advertising Standards Authority will expand its remit to cover all forms of online advertising. The ASA, which regulates advertising on TV and radio, in print media, and on billboards, does already oversee some online communications, ie banner and text adverts bought on other people's websites.

However, the new development - which is supported by ad industry trade body the Advertising Association - will see ASA regulation extended to advertising content published on companies' own websites, and on their social media pages, such as Facebook profiles and Twitter feeds.

Such online activity will now have to meet ASA rules regarding all advertising messages being responsible, legal, honest and truthful. Concerns have been raised that consumers, and especially children, may be misled by company websites and social media pages which have not previously been open to active regulation.

It's an interesting development because those communication outputs are sometimes managed by marketing or even PR people, rather than advertising execs, meaning the ASA's remit is extending into other communication sectors.

The move will have to be approved by the Committee For Advertising Practice, which feeds into the ASA, but given the Advertising Association is already a supporter most seem to think that approval will be forthcoming.

The Advertising Standards Authority has criticised the NME for running an ad for fashion house Fly53, which featured a man gripping another guy by the throat and pointing a gun to his head. The cartoony ad was based around Fly53's ongoing shtick of "confessing your fashion crimes".

The brand and the mag denied the ad glamorised gun crime, saying it was aimed at an "educated, creative and intelligent young market" who wouldn't infer any sinister messages from the artwork (NME readers educated, creative and intelligent? Yes, of course they are, you doubters you).

But the ASA said the ad was "aggressive and threatening" and had a "menacing atmosphere" and should never have been published in the music weekly.

The Advertising Standards Authority has banned an advert for BSkyB's Sky Plus service over allegations it implied that buying the service was the easiest way to cope with the nationwide switch to digital television.

Analogue TV transmissions are slowly being turned off around the UK requiring viewers to upgrade to digital. This means either investing in a Freeview set-top box (or TV with Freeview inbuilt), or opting for a subscription TV service from Sky or Virgin Media.

Sky's most recent ads noted the turn off of analogue TV signals, and featured Sue Johnston, best known as the Mum in 'The Royle Family', saying: "I am a simple soul as far as technology goes, but I can manage Sky+. You just press the button and you can record a whole television series. It's just so simple. I say to everybody who's worrying about going digital, don't worry about it, get a Sky box, then it's done. So I will become digital without feeling any pain at all".

Coming at the same time as government communications explaining the digital switchover, and seemingly aimed at older less tech-savvy TV viewers, the ASA felt some might infer from the ad that Sky offered the simplest solution for going digital, when really Freeview is, if anything, simpler, and the Virgin cable TV system is certainly no more complicated.

In a statement the ASA said that they felt the "ad implied it was necessary to subscribe to those enhanced services in order to switch over to digital TV when that was not the case" adding that they concluded the ad "was likely to mislead on those grounds".

An interesting development over in the advertising sector now. The UK's Advertising Standard's Authority will extend its remit and start policing online advertising activities thanks to a deal with Google.

The advertising industry's regulatory body has been interested in having a more proactive role in overseeing online marketing for a while now, especially so called 'search advertising'. But the body is funded by the industry it regulates, and has so far struggled to agree with key players in online advertising, in particular US-based Google, how its regulation of their part of the industry should be paid for.

But the ASA announced yesterday that Google had agreed to provide "vital seed capital" to help launch a digital advertising regulation initiative. However, the agreement is pretty short term, and a more long term arrangement needs to be sorted out. Nevertheless, it has been hailed as a landmark deal in the self-regulation of online advertisng. 

The ASA's Winston Fletcher told reporters: "This stands to be an incredibly important development in effective self regulation by the advertising industry. It promises to strengthen significantly the reach and work of the ASA, which will be good for our industry and vital for consumers. The active role that Google has played has been essential".