New EASA International Guide to Help Further Strengthen Advertising Standards Around the World
29 October 2014
EASA launched the new 2014 edition of the International Guide to Developing a Self-Regulatory Organisation during the biannual meetings of its membership in Istanbul last week.
Introducing the revised International Guide, EASA’s Chairman, Guy Parker said “…it’s fitting that the launch of the Guide is taking place in Istanbul, a city with one foot in Europe and the other in Asia – reflecting EASA’s European roots but its evolving presence in the rest of the world.”. He added “We believe strongly that ad self-regulation done well is an important complement to the law. When given space and encouragement, self-regulation is a key tool for ensuring responsible advertising which, as we all know, is good for people, good for business and good for society”.
The event was hosted by EASA’s Turkish member, RӦK. High level representatives from EASA’s self-regulatory organisations, industry and media associations were present at the launch, which was also attended by Turkish Undersecretary of the Ministry of Customs and Trade Mr. Altunyaldiz, Mr. Üner, President of the Turkish Association of Advertising Agencies (TAAA) and Mr. Pura, Chairman of the Turkish Advertisers Association.
According to Linda Nagel, President and CEO of Advertising Standards Canada and Chairman of EASA’s International Council on Advertising Self-Regulation (ICAS), the Guide “provides advice and counsel to those wishing to set up an effective SRO as well as for those who wish to learn what counterpart organisations are doing to meet best practice standards” providing a starting point for “addressing some of the complex issues and building consensus between stakeholders to achieve effective ad self-regulation”.
Stephan Loerke, Managing Director of the World Federation of Advertisers and member of EASA’s Executive calls the Guide “the basis on which industry partners around the world can build and strengthen their own systems so that they too can increase trust in brand marketing communications”.
The new 2014 International Guide was developed with input from members of EASA’s International Council on Advertising Self-Regulation which includes 11 self-regulatory bodies from outside Europe. It offers even more practical advice on setting up and consolidating an advertising self-regulatory system. Updated to cover the main developments in ad standards from the last five years, it also includes case studies from several of EASA’s SRO members on how they tackled some of the challenges associated with setting up a self-regulatory system.
The original International Guide was published in 2009.
Download the 2014 International Guide here
For more information about the Guide, or to order a hard copy, please contact jennifer.pearson@easa-alliance.org
Notes
EASA – the European Advertising Standards Alliance, is a network of 54 organisations committed to making sure advertising is legal, decent, honest and truthful through effective self-regulation.
EASA was created in 1992, today its membership is made up of 38 self-regulatory organisations (27 from Europe and 11 from the rest of the world) and 16 ad industry associations, including advertisers, agencies and the media. Together we work to promote responsible advertising through effective self-regulation.
For more information please visit www.easa-alliance.org
About ICAS
In 2008 the International Council on Advertising Self-Regulation (ICAS) was set up by EASA in response to the need for discussion of ad standards at the global level. ICAS provides a forum for facilitating information exchange and discussion of best practices between advertising self-regulatory organisations (SROs) around the world.
Advertising Self-Regulation
Self-regulation in the advertising sector is the recognition that the advertising industry (advertisers, agencies and the media) create advertising that complies to a set of ethical rules, namely that it should be
- Legal
- Decent
- Honest
- Truthful
- Prepared with a sense of social responsibility to the consumer as well as society as a whole
- Created with due respect to the rules of fair competition.
These ethical rules are usually drawn up in the form of a code and the ICC code very often forms the basis of the national codes.
Self-Regulatory Organisations (SROs)
SROs, sometimes known as advertising watchdogs, are responsible for the application, enforcement as well as any revisions of national self-regulatory codes.
SROs handle complaints, usually free of charge, issue sanctions when ads are found in breach, provide advice to the advertising industry to ensure that ads are not in breach of the code and monitor published ads (usually in specific sectors) to check whether any breach the code.
