I am pleased to accept the joint committee's invitation on behalf of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland, ASAI, to contribute to its discussion on the issue of alcohol marketing and the targeting of younger people. We have, however, no role in the pricing of alcohol. The ASAI is an independent self-regulatory body set up and financed by the advertising industry to promote the highest standards of advertising and sales promotions. Membership embraces all major advertisers and agencies and all major media, including broadcast, outdoor, electronic and print. The ASAI is a limited company with a board of directors representing these major interests, of which I am chairman. I am accompanied by our chief executive, Mr. Frank Goodman. In addition, the ASAI also has a complaints committee, independent of the board, and it alone can adjudicate on advertisements.
My intention is to outline briefly what the ASAI is about, rather than how it does its work, as I hope that might have been sufficiently covered in our written submission. I hope it goes without saying we are as conscious as anyone of the problems for individuals, families and society to which the abuse of alcohol can give rise and, consequently, the need for strict regulation, properly and effectively enforced. As I hope to show, the rules in our code of advertising standards were designed to address these concerns.
Essentially, the ASAI is all about self-regulation, a topic which, admittedly, nowadays is subject to a certain amount of negative comment. However, it is sometimes overlooked that the essence of self-regulation, namely, the willingness of industries or institutions or bodies to regulate themselves to proper ethical standards is a sine qua non for good governance and responsible behaviour. Without some aspects of it, personal self-regulation or self-discipline within industries would suffer or, at least, become very difficult in highly competitive environments. Rather than trying to diminish it, I suggest self-regulation should not only be encouraged but also insisted upon. There is a duty on everyone to respect proper standards and the concerns of society, particularly those concerns for younger people.
This is by no means to suggest self-regulation can or should occur in a vacuum. All such activities are, ultimately, subject to the laws of the land. In areas of particular concern to society, the authorities can and should encourage, support and, where necessary, strengthen the enforcement of proper standards. This can be done through a range of possible measures, from direct statutory or regulatory rules, to working with industries and insisting on certain specific standards through self-regulation or otherwise. In Ireland the advertising of alcohol is controlled by such a combination of statute-based rules and industry-based codes and systems, of which the ASAI is the most significant. Examples of the statute-based provisions are to be found in the general code of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, which has specific rules relating to the advertising of alcohol on Irish television and radio stations, including some to prevent the targeting of children. Following discussions with the then Department of Health and Children, a specific body called Central Copy Clearance Ireland, CCCI, was set up in 2003 by the alcohol industry. It pre-vets all alcohol brand advertising against the standards of both the ASAI code and the BAI code. By agreement, Irish media will not carry such alcohol advertisements that have not been approved by the CCCI. This is a powerful and almost unique example of self-regulation, limited though it is to alcohol brand advertising.
The ASAI deals with complaints from any source about advertisements, including those cleared by the CCCI body. The ASAI also monitors advertisements for compliance with its code. Of course, since the advent of the copy clearance function, very few alcohol advertisements are found to be in breach of our codes. For example, in 2002, 12 advertisements were found to be in breach of the code but none has been found to be so since 2007. The ASAI is also mandated to investigate complaints under the placement codes negotiated between the then Department of Health and Children and the advertising, media and alcohol industries under the jurisdiction of the Alcohol Marketing Communications Monitoring Body, AMCMB, representatives of which are present. These codes are designed to limit the overall levels of alcohol advertising and marketing and reduce the exposure of young people to same. These links, between the State control and self-regulatory activities, involve in varying degrees what is nowadays termed co-regulation between the State and industry. All this results in onerous and costly responsibilities on the media, agencies and advertisers to abide by the agreed standards, responsibilities which are well merited, given the serious nature of the products involved and the vulnerability of younger people.
That bring me to the core of our business, namely, the ASAI code. It is a comprehensive document covering practically all commercial advertising in practically all Irish media and it has evolved and developed in the past 30 years to meet the changing needs of Irish society. It is reviewed in its entirety every five or six years or so and can be amended in the interim, where necessary. In this respect alone, it has a huge advantage in terms of flexibility over statute law and statute-based regulation. The reviews involve extensive consultation covering the public at large, Departments and the relevant statutory and non-Government organisations.
The code has general rules designed to ensure all commercial advertising is legal, decent, honest and truthful. It also has chapters on sectoral rules to deal with particularly sensitive areas. These include a chapter devoted to advertising and children and a separate chapter on advertising alcoholic drinks. The chapter on children applies to those under 18 years and recognises the special vulnerability of children. It has specific safeguards to forbid advertising or promotions likely to cause harm to children and onerous requirements on advertising directed at children. It relates to all advertising and promotions and is not specific to alcohol advertising.
The chapter of the ASAI code on alcohol opens by stating such advertising should be socially responsible and should not exploit the young and immature. It also provides that it should not be directed at children or in any way encourage them to start drinking. To help to achieve this, it requires that anyone depicted in an advertisement for alcohol should look, and be, over 25 years of age. Aspects of youth culture should not be portrayed and advertisements must not appear in media primarily intended for children. These media requirements are augmented further by the rules in the AMCMB codes.
Codes on their own will have little impact if they are not properly enforced. The ASAI code has a number of considerable strengths in this regard. First, we have a separate adjudication body independent of the board, namely, our complaints committee which comprises people from different backgrounds and professions and has a respected senior academic as its chairperson. It has a mixture of advertising industry personnel and lay people, with lay people always being in the majority. Four of its members have professional qualifications in disciplines related to the education and welfare of children
Second, the ASAI code provides that it must be interpreted in its "spirit" as well as the "letter". This is to prevent avoidance of its rules by over-legalistic interpretations that might have to be accepted when interpreting statutory regulations. Third, the committee's adjudications are published promptly and available on our website, thus helping to ensure consistency in judgments.
Fourth, all of the major Irish media organs - television, radio, newspapers, cinemas and digital - are members of the ASAI and will refuse to run advertisements found to be in breach of the code. They also have a responsibility as members not to run advertisements that may appear to be in breach of the code and, where doubtful, to seek advice from the ASAI.
The ASAI is reaching out to deal with the issue of advertising in the digital media area, the regulation of which, as is well known, is proving particularly difficult for national authorities. It may well be that the flexibility offered by self-regulation will enable it to have an effective presence where legal measures prove to be ineffective or even inapplicable.
I thank the Chairman again for inviting us. I hope what we have submitted and said will prove useful to the committee in its work. Mr. Goodman, our chief executive, who is responsible for the day-to-day running of the ASAI, and I will be happy to respond to the best of our ability to add further clarifications of our role that the committee may require.
