THE Advertising Federation of Australia is calling for all advertising agencies to recognise deaf and hearing impaired people in the preparation of television advertising.
AFA executive director Lesley Brydon said captioning of television commercials was an integral part of the successful execution of an advertising campaign because it would help advertisers reach a market of almost two million deaf or hearing impaired Australians.
Australian Caption Centre marketing manager Karen Williams said that, without captioning, television campaigns were failing to maximise their effectiveness.
Captions differ from foreign language subtitles because they are coloured and positioned to indicate who is speaking.
Bowtell Clarke & Yole partner Richard Clarke said it was not a major problem for captioning to be put into a television advertising campaign.
“The only time it’s a problem is if it is a rush job,” he said. “I think most government advertisements require captioning.”