Solving Shared Challenges: A Global Approach to Advertising Self-Regulation

It may sometimes seem as if the world today is more divided than ever, even though most of us share the same yearning to create a safer, greener, more supportive world for our children and their children.

For the past four and a half years, since joining BBB National Programs – the U.S. home of independent industry self-regulation – I have participated in the International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (ICAS), a global platform convening advertising self-regulation organizations (SROs) from around the world. We all share a similar mission, ensuring that advertising is not just legal but also responsible and trustworthy.

Throughout my time in ICAS, I have been struck by the similarity in the issues my fellow advertising self-regulators face, from India to Australia and New Zealand, to South Africa, Brazil, Canada, and many European countries, despite the oceans and continents that separate us. Whether it’s influencer marketing or other disguised advertising methods; “green,” carbon-neutral, sustainable, or other environmental marketing terms; issues regarding inclusion and representation in advertising; or the sudden rise in generative artificial intelligence, we all are hearing similar concerns and are pondering solutions. 

Regardless of the different languages we speak or the political systems governing our countries, we share similar challenges. 

• What are the responsibilities of advertisers?
• What is the role of independent advertising self-regulatory organizations?
• Can responsible advertising embrace medicine’s Hippocratic Oath and “do no harm”?
• Even bolder, can it be a force for good? Should advertising, by what it depicts, reflect and promote pro-social ideals and goals?

Recognizing the shared major environmental, social, and technological challenges that society and marketers are facing, while at the same time reckoning with declining levels of trust, advertising standards authorities are uniting with other stakeholders to help ensure responsible marketing across all media channels.

At its annual meeting this week in New York City, ICAS announced the founding of its Global Think Tank, creating a space for academic, business, and policy leaders to engage in candid discussion, research, and collaboration on the biggest challenges facing the advertising industry. 

As ICAS President and Chief Executive of the UK Ad Standards Authority Guy Parker said, the Global Think Tank “will provide the platform to address some of the most pressing issues facing the advertising sector today, generating insights that will help inform evidence-based policymaking, elevate ad standards, and ultimately benefit people and communities worldwide.”

ICAS and its member organizations invite industry leaders, universities, and others to join the Think Tank to research and analyze pressing issues that affect advertising and ad self-regulation. The resulting research and policy briefs will inform policy discussions around the world and help shape the development of standards and best practices for companies and advertising industry associations.

Having spent 30 years working as a regulator and law enforcer with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, I believe that while regulation and law enforcement are necessary to maintain the unrivaled power of competitive markets to increase consumer welfare, it is also incumbent on marketers – independent of law enforcement – to act responsibly, to earn consumer trust. 

The ICAS Global Think Tank will enhance the vital role that advertising self-regulatory organizations play in helping to ensure responsible advertising practices in today’s fast-changing world.

For more than 50 years, BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division and its appellate body, the National Advertising Review Board, have been promoting marketplace trust and transparency. BBB National Programs is excited to join the Global Think Tank to help address our shared challenges.

The internet and social media platforms have closed the physical distances that separate us. For better or for worse, viral trends spread quickly around the globe. Shared challenges call for collaboration. As a young child, I visited the New York City World’s Fair and was enchanted with the “It’s a Small World” ride, now also at Disney theme parks. The ICAS Global Think Tank reflects the truth of the ride’s earworm song: “It’s a small world after all.”