AIG Submission to the European Commission DG VII (Transport) on Car Advertising and Road Safety
The Advertising Information Group
The Advertising Information Group is a joint initiative of the main advertising and commercial communication tripartites in Europe. Core members include: the Zentralverband der Deutschen Werbewirtschaft, the UK Advertising Association, the Dutch Stichting Stuurgroep Reclame, the Austrian Fachverband Werbung und Marktkommunikation, and the Hungarian Advertising Association. The central aim of the Advertising Information Group is to promote the exchange of information and knowledge about developments in policy and legislation affecting commercial communications at both national and European levels.
The EC proposals
a) The possible creation of a pan-European prize for advertising that promotes road safety
The Advertising Information Group welcomes the creation of a pan-European prize for advertising that promotes road safety. This is a useful and positive initiative that recognises in a realistic way the substantial contribution that advertising can offer in this area.
b) The establishment of pan-European guidelines on car advertising.
The draft guidelines currently being discussed by EC officials appear to reproduce most of the text contained within the UK advertising codes, although they follow the CAP (non-broadcast media) code rather more closely than the provisions in the ITC (broadcast media) code. These codes are voluntary and were agreed and established by the industry, adjudicated by an independent secretariat, and, in the case of the print media, implemented by the media itself.
The Advertising Information Group is concerned that the Commission refers to the guidelines as a self-regulatory “code”. This indicates a misunderstanding of the nature of industry self-regulation; the Advertising Information Group is particularly concerned at the suggestion made by the EC official responsible for this area that if the initiative fails, the Commission is resolved to propose statutory legislation.
The proposals undermine the whole basis of self-regulation in this sector and compromise the existing high standards of compliance and effectiveness. This is not self-regulation nor is it likely to gain the support of the very industry that will be expected to enforce it.
The Advertising Information Group believes that differences in the levels of road safety in the member states are completely unrelated to presentations of careless driving or other portrayals which appear to contradict official advice. A great deal of research has been done in the area of advertising’s influence on behaviour, and there is no evidence from any of this research to justify measures against the content of advertisements – whether or not for cars – which include such portrayals.
If the Commission believes that car advertising is unacceptable, it should first explain why there are so few complaints recorded by ordinary members of the European public about this advertising sector. It should also be realised that there is no existing cross-border mechanism to ensure consistent enforcement and compliance on a pan-European level.
There is a wide diversity between Member States’ national legislation concerning driving behaviour. Speed limits, safety belts, permitted vehicles, drink/driving laws, highway codes and the issuing of driving licences all vary across the EU. Similarly, there is a wide diversity of acceptability relating to differing types of advertising content over and above that governed by the Misleading Advertising Directive.
This diversity, in our view, makes the imposition of uniform advertising regulation unworkable and unacceptable. In particular, the additional inclusion in the draft EU guidelines that advertisements should not “emphasise performance or power” is unnecessarily restrictive.