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French industry adopts initiatives to strengthen advertising self-regulation
Date: 20/10/2007
Two important developments in advertising self-regulation took place in France last week. The French self-regulatory organisation (Bureau de Vérification de la Publicité - BVP) has announced a major structural reform programme, which includes the establishment of an independent jury for complaint adjudications and a Stakeholder Council, both of which will include non-industry representatives. In parallel, the French advertiser association (Union des Annonceurs - UDA) has adopted a Charter on Responsible Communication (Charte d'engagement des annonceurs pour une communication responsible), which establishes broad principles for corporate social responsibility in advertising across the board.
These developments follow an extensive consultation on the environment with the French government, industry and NGOs, under the leadership of President Sarkozy ("Le Grenelle de l'Environnement"). A task force set up in this context to address the "promotion of a sustainable and competitive development" saw unprecedented criticism of the advertising industry and the effectiveness of self-regulation in particular.
The BVP has adopted significant reforms that will make French advertising self-regulation more open, transparent and effective. They have established a Stakeholder Council (Conseil Paritaire de la Publicité) composed of stakeholders from the advertising industry, NGOs, consumer groups to encourage dialogue and cooperation through:
- opinion on the drafting of ethical rules (opinions are published but non-binding);
- notification to BVP of problematic commercial communications;
- annual monitoring of implementation of the code.
The BVP is also creating an independent Jury responsible for the arbitration of complaints. This panel of independent experts will be appointed in equal parts by members of the new Stakeholder Council, the Advertising Ethics Council and the Board of the BVP. Its decisions will be published.
The UDA Responsible Communications Charter of ‘advertiser commitments for responsible communication' was made public on 4 December 2007. The French Government has welcomed the initiative which will commit signatories to the following key principles:
1. All external communication must be subject to their internal codes of responsible communication;
2. They should encourage their audiences to adopt responsible behaviours;
3. Across all marketing initiatives, personal data of consumers should be used with care;
4. Internal validation processes should be set up to ensure compliance of communications;
5. The impact on the environment should be taken into account in the choice of communication tools.
The objective of this Charter is to ensure responsibility in all communications from conception to release. The Charter provides a framework within which individual companies will make commitments to implement the abovementioned principles. Evaluation of Charter signatories commitments will be evaluated through an annual monitoring exercise.
Please refer to the individual press releases below.
For more information please contact [email protected]
