The topic of ethics in advertising has exercised the advertising industry for many years, well before I ever came to the business. In fact, most of the standards and codes in operation nowadays go way back and are based on codes of the International Chamber of Commerce dating back to the 1930s.
From the beginning the principal aims were to ensure that commercial advertising met certain principles of a strict ethical nature. There are really four or five of them. First, all advertising must be legal — a sine qua non but nonetheless the very bedrock on which the other principles must be based. They should be decent in the normal sense of the word; in other words, they should not be considered offensive. They must be honest, meaning roughly that they should be what they appear to be and not misrepresent themselves as being something else. Perhaps most important, they should be truthful, by which we mean not being misleading. They also should have a sense of responsibility to consumers and society, and that has been developed in many ways in the meantime. Finally, they should subscribe to the principles of fair competition between each other.
Once these principles were made back in the 1930s, they had to be fleshed out. This was done in a number of ways. First and most important, mechanisms had to be devised to implement them, otherwise the principles meant nothing. These developed in most European countries into independent bodies such as the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland, ASAI, funded by the local national advertising industry. These bodies then devised codes in turn based on the fundamental ethical principles I outlined. The bodies are structured in such a way as to ensure they can implement the codes in an independent and impartial manner and that they are given authority to impose their judgments on advertisers and on the industry.
The second major development since the beginning has been the natural evolution of the principles in the light of political and social concerns and, of course, consumer concerns. While the ethical principles remain exactly the same, their interpretation must vary over time as societies become more sophisticated, hence the fleshing out of codes at various times to reflect concerns about matters such as alcohol advertising, advertising to children, advertising concerning the environment, etc.
Over time, too, some additional principles of varying importance were added such as that our code is applied in the spirit as well as in the letter, which gives us a flexibility of interpretation, advertising should not bring advertising itself into disrepute, and also the primary responsibility for observing the codes rests with advertisers, which is important as there is usually a string of people involved in producing advertising campaigns such as the advertising agencies, the media buying companies and the media.
Our code of advertising standards represents the Irish interpretation of those basic ethical principles formulated in the context of our own legal, political and social concerns. We review the code every five years or so and make interim ad hoc amendments. It is one of the advantages we have over legislation, that we can do so quickly. We consult widely when revising the code with Departments, statutory agencies, the industry and the public at large. These codes, although they are industry codes, are done not in a vacuum but follow widespread consultation.
The application of the code is extremely wide. It applies to practically all marketing communications — as we call advertising nowadays — in most Irish media and also sales promotions. The principal exceptions are that we do not deal with advertising of a non-commercial character such as religious or political advertising.
The scope of the code is expansive. In addition to the general rules, there are rules about children, distance selling, alcohol, food and other beverages, health and beauty, slimming, financial services, environment etc. These have grown up over the years in response to demands. No other advertising code in the country has anything near the breadth of its scope and application when the rules are put together. This is very important nowadays when advertising campaigns can appear over several media all at once.
How do we work? In summary, we deal with complaints from all sources about advertising and then we check the advertisement against our code. If there is a prima facie concern, we put it to our independent complaints committee, which has a majority of non-industry people. If the committee finds that the code had been breached, the advertisement must be pulled or amended. The media, all of whom are members of the ASAI, will enforce the adjudication for us. It should be emphasised that the media members include RTE, TV3, the national and regional newspapers, magazines, poster companies, cinema, etc. In addition, ASAI also operates a monitoring system where it checks on advertisements on its own initiative and takes whatever action it considers necessary.
Where do we fit in to the scheme of things? The ASAI is a self-regulatory organisation. By that we mean that we are distinguishable from State regulation, whether by law or by any of the many regulatory bodies established under statute which operate in the area of advertising regulation. However, we work closely with these organisations. In one particular case, the National Consumer Agency, formerly the Director of Consumer Affairs, nominates four representatives to our complaints committee. The BCI is also represented in the person of its chief executive. We try not to duplicate what these organisations do and, given that they are statutory bodies, we bow to their authority. In practice, however, members of the public come to us in greater numbers than to the statutory bodies and we deal with a fair amount of the important minutiae that others do not wish to or simply cannot deal with. As stated, ours is the only body which deals with issues of both decency and truthfulness in advertisements in all media.
The ASAI is also a member of the European Advertising Standards Alliance, which is principally involved in setting best practice recommendations for self-regulatory bodies throughout Europe. The European Commission has always shown a keen interest in the benefits of self-regulation and has recently been supporting it in several ways. For example, specific reference was made to it in the AVMS directive.
I recognise that self-regulation per se has not had a good name in recent times, mainly due to the way it was conducted in certain of the professions or areas. This presents our organisation with a certain difficulty with regard to perception. However, advertising self-regulation has developed differently from other forms. First, there is no single advertising profession as such; it is spread over many disciplines and professions. It depends daily on consumer confidence and cannot afford to constantly mislead or offend the public. Second, it has evolved sound ethical principles the application of which is constantly adapted to changing circumstances and concerns. Third, it has devised structures within the various self-regulatory bodies in order to ensure equity and independence in deciding on complaints and effective mechanisms for the implementation of its adjudications.
The ASAI offers a service to the public that is friendly, free, speedy, equitable and effective. This is done at no cost to the Exchequer.
