Ad Consortium Aims To Counter Threat Of Ban On Kids’ Advertising

A new research study was unveiled in Brussels this week by an industry delegation looking at national restrictions on advertising to children. The consortium includes the Advertising Association (AA), the European Group for Television Advertising (EGTA) and the Association for Commercial Television in Europe.

The study, called An Overview and Comparison of Rules, Regulations and Policies Affecting Advertising To Children in the Netherlands, UK, Spain and Sweden, argued for the preservation of the children’s advertising sector, which is currently valued at over half a billion Euros.

The campaign aims to counter the growing threat of a ban on advertising to children. Lionel Stanbrook, deputy director general of the AA, claims that the abolition of advertising to children would have a negative affect on the quality of children’s programmes: “Proposals to restrict advertising are, in effect, proposals to undermine the quality and quantity of European children’s programming. They must therefore be categorically ruled out. There is a direct connection between advertising revenue and programme investment – when this is broken, it’s to the detriment of children’s television.”

The conclusion of the report is that it is impossible to establish a single European market in respect of TV advertising regulation. The European Commission is due to unveil its own study this week, along a similar vein, as part of the review process of the Television Without Frontiers Directive, due in 2001.

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