Marketing and Advertising Archives

New Marketing Code Raises Consumer Protection Standards Around the World

Published on September 15, 2011

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New York, N.Y., September 15, 2011 –New protection for Internet users – along with detailed standards for marketers selling to them – are highlighted in a newly revised code of global marketing practice from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), according to ICC’s American national committee, the United States Council for International Business (USCIB).

The Consolidated ICC Code of Advertising and Marketing Communications, launched today and made globally available online, serves as the foundation for national self-regulatory systems that monitor marketing practices and provide consumers with easy access to make complaints and redress problems.  The Code was unveiled in Buenos Aires at an international conference on responsible advertising, hosted by CONARED, the Latin American Association of Advertising Self-Regulatory Organizations.

“Our Consolidated Code is recognized as the gold standard for self-regulation,” said John Manfredi, chair of ICC’s Commission on Marketing and Advertising and CEO of Manloy Associates.  “This new Code expands the scope and reach of global efforts with rules that cover consumer rights and business’s responsibilities online.  It increases protection for children on the Internet and sets parameters for all advertising directed to them, and it adds safeguards for consumers’ privacy and personal information.”

Mr. Manfredi added that ICC, to make the Code accessible to everyone, has launched a website, www.codescentre.com, dedicated to self-regulation at all levels – global, national and regional.  “It will serve business people, regulators, self-regulators and academics as well as consumers,” he said.  “Its purpose is to build trust for self-regulation by setting high marketing standards.”

The Code sets out the do’s and don’ts on many topical and difficult marketing issues including:

  • Setting conditions and limits for online behavioral targeting of advertising (OBA), based on interest profiles created by tracking web browsing habits of consumers;
  • Establishing restrictions on products that may be marketed to children and information gathered from them;
  • Specifying guidelines for making responsible environmental marketing claims and creating sound food and beverage ads;
  • Setting standards for ethical behavior and transparency on digital communications for the new technology players, including mobile operators, search engines, application developers, information aggregators and data gatherers;
  • Protecting consumer privacy with clear guidance on consumers’ rights, including the right to know what information is acquired by a marketer and the standards for the collection, use and safeguarding of personal data when it is collected.

“The newly revised Code demonstrates industry’s continuing commitment to ethical marketing practice,” said Brent Sanders, associate general counsel with Microsoft Corporation and chair of USCIB’s Marketing and Advertising Committee.  “Some of the most interesting revisions to the Code for U.S. marketers include those that harmonize for the first time at the international level provisions about online behavioral advertising [OBA], requiring transparency and control for consumers for their online data.  This builds on pioneering OBA self-regulatory efforts here in the United States and expands them globally.  Enhancing consumer trust in advertising is vital to a competitive and innovative marketplace.”

Mr. Sanders is scheduled to review the key provisions of the Consolidated ICC Code of Advertising and Marketing Communications on October 3 in New York at the National Adverting Division’s annual conference.

About the International Chamber of Commerce

ICC is the world business organization, representing enterprises from all sectors in every part of the world. It promotes cross-border trade and investment and the multilateral trading system, and helps business meet the challenges and opportunities of globalization. Business leaders and experts drawn from ICC’s global membership establish the business stance on broad issues of trade and investment policy as well as on vital technical subjects. ICC enjoys a close working relationship with the United Nations and other intergovernmental organizations, including the World Trade Organization and the G20. ICC was founded in 1919. Today it groups hundreds of thousands of member companies and associations from 120 countries. For more information please visit: www.iccwbo.org

About USCIB

USCIB promotes open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development and corporate responsibility, supported by international engagement and prudent regulation.  Its members include top U.S.-based global companies and professional services firms from every sector of our economy, with operations in every region of the world.  With a unique global network encompassing leading international business organizations, including ICC, USCIB provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide, and works to facilitate international trade and investment.  More information is available at www.uscib.org.

ICC’s codescentre.com website

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China Embraces Self-Regulation of Marketing

Published on April 14, 2011
USCIB’s Justine Badimon and Chris Martin (second and fourth from left) and Microsoft’s Brent Sanders, Marketing Committee Chair (fifth from left) with members of the China Advertising Association at a 2010 meeting to promote self-regulation.
USCIB’s Justine Badimon and Chris Martin (second and fourth from left) and Microsoft’s Brent Sanders, Marketing Committee Chair (fifth from left) with members of the China Advertising Association at a 2010 meeting to promote self-regulation.

For many years, while the state in China is the key purveyor of law and regulation, the Chinese private sector often works on its own to enforce norms and expectations of government. So it is quite interesting to note that China has embraced self-regulation in the marketing and advertising sector.

In April, as part of the first Global Advertising Week to be held in Beijing in the event’s 58-year history, the China Association of National Advertisers, the China Advertising Association and the China Advertising Association of Commerce jointly adopted the first set of ethical standards for the entire marketing industry in China.

The China Responsible Marketing Code was developed by the three ad industry associations in close consultation with the World Federation of Advertisers, and multinational and Chinese companies. The Code is built on the global advertising code from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), USCIB’s affiliate. The ICC code serves as baseline model for other countries, requiring that all marketing and advertising communications be legal, decent, honest and truthful. Brands must apply established principles of fair competition and recognize the special care required in marketing to children and young people. The Chinese Code also includes provisions for medical, health product, food, alcohol and cosmetics advertising.

“U.S. business strongly supports Chinese efforts to develop an advertising self-regulatory system,” said Brent Sanders, chair of USCIB’s Marketing & Advertising Committee and associate general counsel at Microsoft. “Building its code on global industry best practices set by ICC is a significant development in bringing the Chinese advertising market into greater coordination with the rest of the world. Furthermore, self-regulation enhances trust between businesses and customers, a vital concern for industry as Chinese consumer demand continues to grow.”

China is forecast to surpass Germany next year as the world’s third-largest advertising market.

USCIB actively contributes to promoting advertising and marketing self-regulation around the world. Currently, USCIB’s Marketing & Advertising Committee is in the final stages of helping to update the ICC’s most recent marketing code. Key new provisions include transparency and control principles around online behavioral advertising for the first time at the global level. Once approved, the ICC’s global standards can then be taken up by regional and national self-regulatory frameworks, as in the case of China and elsewhere.

“The new Chinese Code is not only an opportunity for industry to demonstrate its commitment to ethical marketing practice, it will assist industry to engage the Chinese government as it updates and revises its current advertising laws, a process that has been ongoing,” said Mr. Sanders. “All self-regulatory frameworks build on core laws and regulation.”

Stephan Loerke, WFA Managing Director, adds “I congratulate the Chinese marketing industry on this important step. In a successful consumer-led economy, trust in brand communications is critical. This code is a significant first step towards establishing effective advertising standards in China.”

Self-regulation in marketing and advertising, whether in China or elsewhere in the world, is less about government versus industry than about finding ways to ensure principled commerce. Building trust between consumers and business is clearly on China’s agenda, and that is a good thing.

Staff contact: Jonathan Huneke

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Getting the Green Message Right: A New Framework for Environmental Marketing

Published on January 26, 2010

3966_image002New York, N.Y., January 26, 2010 –  As more consumers consider environmental features important in their purchasing decisions, businesses have a keen interest in communicating the “green” attributes of their products.  Getting the message right is far from easy.  To help marketers and advertisers avoid the mistakes of vague, non-specific or misleading environmental claims, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has produced a new global Framework for Responsible Environmental Marketing Communications.

Launched today at a seminar for marketing professionals and self-regulation experts in New York, the framework responds to a call from industry stakeholders for guidance on how to better engage in, and evaluate, environmental marketing communications to ensure consumer confidence in these claims is safeguarded.

ICC is the largest, most representative business organization in the world.  Its thousands of member companies in over 120 countries have interests spanning every sector of private enterprise.  The United States Council for International Business (USCIB), based in New York, serves as ICC’s American national committee and hosted today’s seminar.

“The new framework helps marketers and their agencies ensure the messages they develop hold up to the basic principles of truthful, honest and socially responsible communications,” said John Manfredi, chair of the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising.  ”While the principles are simple, applying them amid the hype and fury of new claims and terms that are not universally understood, is more complicated.  This guide is an attempt to map that process for companies and provide a standard for self-regulators to evaluate when claims are questioned.”

ICC has been a major rule-setter for international advertising since the 1930s, when the first ICC code on advertising practice was issued.  Since then, it has extended the ICC self-regulatory framework on many occasions to assist companies in marketing their products responsibly.

Developed by the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising, the framework includes a practical checklist aimed at the creators of marketing communications campaigns around environmental claims, as well as a chart that provides an easy reference to relevant provisions of the global advertising code and interpretations on current issues related to environmental marketing.

The launch seminar featured a presentation of the new framework, along with an interactive discussion based on examples that demonstrate how the framework tools can be applied to improve advertising and avoid misleading claims.  Participants from the United States, Europe, Mexico and China discussed regional differences in approaches and the importance of consumer perception in the determination of whether a claim is useful or misleading, as well as the impact that symbols, images and colors can have on that determination.

“Even a widely recognized symbol like the mobius loop (left), the three arrows that follow each other in a triangle, does not necessarily communicate something universally understood by consumers,” noted seminar moderator and expert Sheila Millar of Keller and Heckman.  “When a consumer sees this loop, what do they infer about the product?  That it has been recycled?  Is recyclable?  Or both?”

ICC’s Framework for Responsible Environmental Marketing Communication is a companion to the Consolidated ICC Code of Advertising and Marketing Communications, which sets forth general principles governing all marketing communications.  The framework offers more detailed interpretation of the environmental claims chapter of the general code.  As many national and regional codes are built on ICC’s codes, this interpretation can also be applied to national and regional marketing codes used by self-regulatory organizations to set best practices for business.

USCIB promotes international engagement and prudent regulation in support of open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development and corporate responsibility.  Its members include top U.S.-based global companies and professional services firms from every sector of the economy, and with operations in every region of the world.  With a unique global network encompassing leading international business organizations, including ICC, USCIB provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide, and works to facilitate international trade and investment.  More information is available at www.uscib.org.

Contacts:

Jonathan Huneke, VP Communications, USCIB
+1 212.703.5043 or jhuneke@uscib.org

Dawn Chardonnal, ICC Communications Dept.
+33 1 49.53.29.07 or dcl@iccwbo.org

ICC Framework on Environmental Marketing Claims

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ICC website

Protection From Brand Infection

Published on March 23, 2009

steel boxUSCIB has teamed up with the Chief Marketing Officer Council on “Protection from Brand Infection,” a new initiative to help leading brand specialists understand and contain the brand damage caused by counterfeiting, piracy and fraud.

A variety of tricks, schemes and frauds have been “infecting” leading brands for years.  According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, counterfeiting and piracy cost the U.S. economy between $200 billion and $250 billion per year, as well as 750,000 American jobs.  A Gartner study estimates 3.6 million Americans lost $3.2 billion in the 12 months ending in August 2007 to phishing scams.

To help explore these issues of brand image and integrity issues and implications, “Protection from Brand Infection” will examine how Internet fraud schemes are impacting brand trust, confidence, credibility and affinity among consumers, channels and business partners and what today’s senior marketers can do to combat these schemes.

Please share your experiences with us by completing this brief online survey.  All responses will be kept confidential and all participants will receive a free copy of the final research report.

For more information on the survey or the CMO Council, please contact Peter Moore at (646) 652-5205 or pmoore@globalfluency.com.

Thank you in advance for your participation!

Click here to launch the survey

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Self-Regulation and Advertising: Surviving the Global Challenges Ahead

Published on February 10, 2009
Plenary speaker Deborah Platt Majoras, vice president and general counsel with Procter & Gamble and former chair of the Federal Trade Commission.
Plenary speaker Deborah Platt Majoras, vice president and general counsel with Procter & Gamble and former chair of the Federal Trade Commission.

Last month in Washington, D.C., just ahead of the change in administration, marketers and advertisers from around the world gathered at an International Chamber of Commerce roundtable on the future of self-regulation, organized by USCIB.  The January 12 roundtable focused on upcoming U.S. regulatory and self-regulatory initiatives, their international components, and engagement by U.S. firms on global marketing and advertising policy.

Plenary speaker Deborah Platt Majoras, vice president and general counsel with Procter & Gamble and the former chair of the Federal Trade Commission, shared her perspectives on what lies ahead for the advertising industry, given the current financial crisis, and warned against the call for broad regulatory reforms.

Ms. Platt Majores urged business to communicate the benefits of advertising in encouraging competitiveness and to stress the cost-effectiveness of self-regulation at a time where government coffers are already heavily burdened.  She praised the Children’s Food and Beverage Initiative, which uses marketing and advertising to foster good nutrition for children, as a positive undertaking by the food sector.

“It is a great example where self-regulation can do something that government cannot do, not just because of constitutional limitations but also in terms of effectiveness,” Ms. Platt Majoras said.

Speakers from AT&T, Google, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, the FTC, the U.S. and Dutch self-regulatory bodies and a range of legal experts contributed to panel discussions on:

  • advertising in interactive environments
  • sustainability and advertising
  • self-regulation in Latin America
  • new models and initiatives in self-regulation

Chairing the roundtable, the American advertising executive John Manfredi, who also serves as chair of the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising, cautioned that the erosion of trust caused by the current crisis has serious implications for the marketing world.

“When trust and confidence are gone, marketing and marketers suffer. Without trust, it’s impossible to establish or retain a relationship with consumers,” he said.  “And without trust, bad things happen.  Not only in the marketplace, but also in the arena of public policy and governance.”

The ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising met the day after the roundtable and explored practical steps for the commission to take in 2009 to help restore trust and effectiveness in self-regulation.

The roundtable and commission meetings, hosted by the law firm Winston & Strawn, attracted participants from 11 countries, including China, Brazil, Mexico, Belgium, Sweden and Turkey.  (Click here to view a summary of the roundtable.)

ICC has been a major rule-setter for international advertising since the 1930s, when the first ICC code on advertising practice was issued. Since then, it has extended the ICC self-regulatory framework on many occasions to assist companies in marketing their products responsibly.  A revised and expanded consolidated ICC Code on Marketing and Advertising Practice was issued in 2006, following in the long-established tradition of promoting high ethical standards for advertisers, advertising agencies and the media around the world.

Staff contact: Jonathan Huneke

Summary of the ICC Marketing Roundtable

More on USCIB’s Marketing and Advertising Committee

ICC website

Mexico Event Spotlights Self-Regulation in Advertising

Published on November 21, 2007
L-R: At the forum, David Mallen of the National Advertising Review Council discusses U.S. industry initiatives on marketing to children, joined by moderator Eduardo Cervantes of Coca-Cola Mexico and Arthur Pober of the European Advertising Standards Alliance
L-R: At the forum, David Mallen of the National Advertising Review Council discusses U.S. industry initiatives on marketing to children, joined by moderator Eduardo Cervantes of Coca-Cola Mexico and Arthur Pober of the European Advertising Standards Alliance

As rapidly developing technology – and seismic shifts in the media world – transform marketing and advertising, self-regulation has never been more important.  Highlighting this point, the International Chamber of Commerce’s Mexican affiliate, in coordination with the Mexican Council for Self-regulation and Advertising Ethics and USCIB, organized a forum on self-regulation in advertising on November 15 in Mexico City.

Self-regulation in the marketing and advertising industries demonstrates recognition by advertisers, agencies and the media that advertising should comply with a set of ethical rules.  The event in Mexico included discussion of new practices in commercial communication and how self-regulatory instruments can be used for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Speakers represented a range of different viewpoints, including consumers, business and regulators.  They discussed self-regulation in the context of globalization and social responsibility, as well as from a legal point of view.  They also addressed the timely issues of self-regulation of electronic media and advertising to children.

On the same day, millions of advertising professionals gained access to the Spanish-language edition of the Consolidated ICC Code on Advertising and Marketing Communication Practice.  Launched in English in September 2006, the ICC Consolidated Code is the global standard used by the marketing and advertising industry and self regulatory bodies.

John Manfredi, chair of the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising and co-author of the ICC Consolidated Code, attended the event.  He applauded the efforts of ICC Mexico and others in raising awareness of the ICC Code and self-regulation and encouraged more to follow.  “Ensuring self-regulation serves everyone’s interest depends on industry, consumers and regulators being well-informed on how it works, and apprised of the resources available to them,” he said.

Mr. Manfredi also praised the efforts of other ICC national committees who have translated the ICC Code and hosted similar educational activities to promote its use and implementation.  In addition to the English version, the Consolidated ICC Code on Advertising and Marketing Communication Practice is currently available in French, Russian, Serbian, Swedish and Turkish, with more translations expected in the near future.

More on USCIB’s Committee on Marketing and Advertising

Access the ICC Code and its translations online (ICC website)

Frequently asked questions about the ICC Code