Autocontrol: A Critical Study of Achievements and Challenges in the Pursuit of Ethical Advertising Through an Advertising Self-Regulation System (original) (raw)
Related papers
Mediterranian Journal of Communication, 2019
In the light of the growth of influencer marketing, this descriptive and analytical study pursues the following three objectives: first, to identify and describe the legal and ethical boundaries of this advertising practice; second, to assess its supervision on the basis of case law and resolutions of the Spanish advertising selfregulation system; third, to identify the role advertising self-regulation could play to guarantee consumer protection in accordance with the actions performed by two leading advertising markets, the United States and the United Kingdom. The results show: the absence of published specific regulation or codes of ethics around advertising practice in Spain; the absence of case law or self-regulation resolutions around compliance with the principle of advertising identification; finally, the crucial role selfregulation can and must play in raising awareness among advertisers, influencers and the audience regarding the necessary identification of this advertising practice, promoting the commitment and co-responsibility of the parties, and involving them in the monitoring and control process of possible infringements.
Mediterranean Journal of Communication, 2019
Resumen In the light of the growth of influencer marketing, this descriptive and analytical study pursues the following three objectives: first, to identify and describe the legal and ethical boundaries of this advertising practice; second, to assess its supervision on the basis of case law and resolutions of the Spanish advertising self-regulation system; third, to identify the role advertising self-regulation could play to guarantee consumer protection in accordance with the actions performed by two leading advertising markets, the United States and the United Kingdom. The results show: the absence of published specific regulation or codes of ethics around advertising practice in Spain; the absence of case law or self-regulation resolutions around compliance with the principle of advertising identification; finally, the crucial role self-regulation can and must play in raising awareness among advertisers, influencers and the audience regarding the necessary identification of this advertising practice, promoting the commitment and co-responsibility of the parties, and involving them in the monitoring and control process of possible infringements. Ante el auge del marketing de influencers, este estudio, descriptivo y analítico, responde a tres objetivos: identificar y describir los límites legales y éticos de esta práctica publicitaria; en segundo lugar, valorar su supervisión sobre la base de la jurisprudencia y las resoluciones del sistema de autorregulación publicitaria español y, en tercer lugar, identificar el rol que puede desempeñar la autorregulación publicitaria para garantizar la protección del consumidor a la luz de las acciones llevadas a cabo en dos mercados publicitarios de referencia, Estados Unidos y el Reino Unido. Los resultados constatan: la inexistencia de legislación o códigos éticos específicos publicados sobre esta práctica en España; la inexistencia de jurisprudencia o resoluciones de Autocontrol sobre el cumplimiento del principio de identificación publicitaria; y el papel clave que puede y debe desempeñar la autorregulación para concienciar a anunciantes, influencers y destinatarios de la necesaria identificación de esta práctica publicitaria, fomentar el compromiso y la corresponsabilidad de las partes, e implicarse en el seguimiento y control de posibles infracciones.
2012
"Resumen Se revisa la actividad desarrollada por Autocontrol de 2005 a 2009. Los casos estudiados han sido clasificados de acuerdo a los productos anunciados, al demandante, a los medios donde se incluyen los anuncios, a la respuesta de Autocontrol y del anunciante, y a los códigos, leyes y principios éticos infringidos. Los resultados se comparan con la actividad desarrollada por el organismo diez años antes y con la el caso americano. Para ello, se utilizan los trabajos realizados por Ramos (2001) y Armstrong y Ozanne (1983). Los datos muestran que en España la actividad de los consumidores y de las organizaciones de consumidores es más activa que en Estados Unidos y que hace diez años. Abstract This study evaluates the activity of the Spain’s advertising self-regulatory system, Autocontrol, from 2005-2009. The cases analyzed were coded according to product category, challenger, media, Autocontrol and advertiser response, codes and laws involved and basic principles addressed. Results were compared to the activity developed by Autocontrol during the last nineties and to the US case. Ramos (2001) analyzed the cases attended by AACC from 1996-2000 and Armstrong and Ozanne’s (1983) did something similar with the American Association. The findings point to more active participation of consumer organizations and consumers in Spain, as compared to that in U.S. and the years before. "
The regulation of professional advertising practices in Spain, 1988–2013
Communication & Society, 2015
From the perspective of the sociology of professions, every professional activity should have its own clearly circumscribed and regulated sphere of action. Such an articulation facilitates the regulation of the production of a given profession as well as the way in which it is practiced. The purpose of the research reported here was to provide a comprehensive review and evaluation of the regulatory framework governing the advertising sector in Spain. To this end, the authors analysed external regulatory legislation and self-regulatory codes extracted from the data base of the Asociación para la Autoregulación de la Comunicación Comercial (Autocontrol) that had been enacted or adopted between 1988, the year that Law 11/1998 on General Telecommunications entered into force, and 2003 as well as other relevant documents retrieved from the Boletin Oficial del Estado (BOE) pertaining to the same period. Findings indicate that although there has been a groundswell of legislation governing advertising practices in Spain since 1988, especially at the regional level, lawmakers have focused on the content of advertising messages and shown very little interest in regulating the professions of advertising and public relations. Furthermore, Spanish legislation enacted in 2003 and EU policies appear to have encouraged the adoption of voluntary codes of ethics. Sectors traditionally subject to mandatory advertising regulation, either due to the vulnerability of their target audiences or the potential impact of their commercial messages on public health or the environment, are more likely to develop self-regulatory codes of conduct than others.
Advertising Self-regulation. A comparative analysis between the United Kingdom and Spain
Based on the criteria and parameters considered decisive by the European Union for an effective self-regulation model in advertising, this work carries out a comparative analysis between the advertising self-regulation systems in the United Kingdom and Spain. Setting the British system as a benchmark due to its effectiveness, the main objective of the study is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the Spanish system in terms of independence, effectiveness, funding
Australian Journal of Public Administration, 2000
Advertising is the most visible element of modern marketing, and an important component of trading. It is also an activity often accused by its critics of being intrusive and pervasive. Such accusations are not easily refuted by a worldwide industry which spends billions of dollars each year reaching and persuading its target markets through daily bombardment of thousands of ads in most developed countries. When advertising does offend, mislead, or is untruthful, a structure needs to be in place in order to provide protection to all parties and, in most cases, a country's legal system is complemented by a self-regulatory scheme. Self-regulation is a common approach to controlling conduct or behaviour in society and, indeed, Australian advertisers have opted for this system of control for more than 60 years.
Power and responsibility: Advertising self‐regulation and consumer protection in a digital world
Journal of Consumer Affairs, 2020
While advertising self-regulation is generally considered effective in a closed, largely countrybased system, the digital world in which we now live is an open and global system. This raises challenges for consumer protection from national regulators trying to enforce compliance from global media platforms, advertisers and consumers. Applying the Power-Responsibility Equilibrium, this study explores who has the power and who has the responsibility for advertising self-regulation in a digital world. In doing so, it takes an ethnographic approach, eliciting insights from 18 key stakeholders in the self-regulatory process, across the three geographical areas of Europe, US and Asia-Pacific. The findings highlight the need for more collaboration and alignment of self-regulatory systems and build a framework for action through embedding responsibility, aligning standards, initiating processes and improving outcomes. Six recommendations are offered to restore the balance of power and responsibility.
The meanings of ethics in and of advertising
Business Ethics: A European Review, 1999
Advertising presents special difficulties for business ethicists. Ads are trivial entertainments, yet advertising culture has been held up as a metaphor for a general moral degradation in the post-modern epoch. Ads confuse us since they are a new and unfamiliar form of communicative discourse which we find difficult to place in an ethical category.This, mainly conceptual, paper attempts to explore how ethics in and of advertising may be subject to examination within a broadly social constructionist perspective.The paper sketches out a view of social constructionism which draws significantly on the 'turn to language' in psychology. It then attempts to discuss how ads might work, or rather, as the paper suggests, how ads mean. The social constructionist view point entails a rejection of cognitivist schemes of advertising psychology in favour of a mutualist framework within which ads and consumers jointly construct meanings which are essentially indeterminate.This ontological perspective has implications for ethical treatments of the field. The notion of meaning making as a psychological principle leads the discussion into an initial consideration of how normative approaches to advertising ethics might be framed. The self regulatory system obtaining in the UK is offered as an appropriate example. An underlying theme of the paper is that discussions of ethics in relation to advertising cannot rest upon a simplistic cognitivist notion of how ads 'work' upon consumers' minds. The paper tries to show that a broadly social constructionist approach may offer a richer scheme for examining advertising ethics in its local, mediated, indeterminate and socially constructed character.