Australian ad body calls for public insight on advertising codes and ethics
06 Aug 2010
The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has released a discussion paper to review its code of ethics and invited public comment on the existing rules as well as seeking comments for inclusion of new ones in the code.
Scott McClellan, chief executive officer of AANA, said, ''The AANA code of ethics is widely regarded as the standard for ethical behaviour by advertisers and marketers and this review will ensure the code remains world's best practice for marketing self regulation.
''The discussion paper encourages dialogue on the objectives and structure of the Code as well as issues such as privacy, body image, the portrayal of people, taste and decency and the substantiation of claims in advertising.''
The code of ethics governs how complaints to the Australian Standards Bureau (ASB) are considered and determined.
The review will be undertaken by Terence Beed, honorary associate Professor in the faculty of economics and business at the University of Sydney.
''Sustained open dialogue with interested non-industry participants is a key requirement for a good self-regulatory system because the model should evolve to meet community expectations and to take into account the new methods employed by marketers to get their messages across.
My hope is that all interested parties will grasp this opportunity to help shape the self-regulatory system,'' said, Beed.
The discussions are open till 10 September 2010.
The AANA represents the rights and responsibilities of companies and individuals involved in Australia's $30 billion a year advertising, marketing and media industry.
