British Association of Advertising Agencies
Upper Woburn Place
London WC1H 0HH
18 December 2014
Parliamentary Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
London SWIP 4QP
Dear Sirs
We have received your letter in which you accuse advertisers of taking advantage of kids spending power. We understand your concern. A concern you probably share with a lot of other people. We have therefore discussed the problem and have then come to the conclusion that there is a problem, but as we see it the problem is strongly exaggerated. And our opinion is that the advertising industry cannot be blamed for the parents inability to resist their children’s pestering. We would instead like to point out that the upbringing of the children is where the problem arises. And we would therefore recommend that the energy would instead be put on drawing parents attention on teaching their children how they should react to the huge amount of advertises they see every day.
Furthermore we would like to point out that a prohibition of advertises aimed at children, which you mention in your letter, would be a definite insult on the freedom of expression and therefore also an insult on one of the most important things in the modern society. Therefore we cannot imagine that a prohibition will ever become an opportunity.
But just like UN has their Global Compact, a set of rules about corporate social responsibility which companies can decide to follow, we would like to suggest that a set of guidelines will be made for the advertising industry. The advertisers should then be capable of deciding whether they want to follow these rules or not.
We have then come up with suggestions to some guidelines which we believe that the advertising industry will be able to accept:
- Products that are not exactly pointed at the children and which are therefore inappropriate and not relevant to children should not be advertised directly at them.
- Advertises should always try to have a good and positive influence on children.
- Advertises should not give a fake or unreal picture of the reality.
- Advertisers should be aware that young children are not always capable of knowing when something is an advertise, and they should therefore not take advantage of this.
- Advertises should not give children unrealistic expectations to products, experiences or something similar to that.
Once again we would like to point out that these are only meant as guidelines and not rules. But even though advertisers are not meant to be forced to follow these guidelines, we believe that most advertisers will sign and follow them anyway, because of the risk of getting a bad reputation in the industry if you are not following the guidelines while everyone else has accepted them and are following them. So the guidelines will be like a stamp that gives the advertising company approval and recognition and shows that it is a trustworthy company.
We are then suggesting that a meeting between us would be hold. Therefore please let us know when you are available so this meeting can be arranged. We suggest the 4th of January at our office. At this meeting we can discuss the problem and you will get some more information about the guidelines. And besides those in this letter you will probably also be introduced to several more. If you have any suggestions to some guidelines we would of course like to hear them so please bring them to the meeting.
We are looking forward to hear your opinion towards the suggestions, and we hope that we will be able to find a solution that all parts will be able to accept.
Kind regards
Frederik Hovmark Pedersen