The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has announced that the overarching self-regulatory Code, the AANA Code of Ethics, is now due for a full review entailing consultation with all interested parties.
The Code’s objective is to ensure that advertisements and other forms of marketing communication are legal, decent, honest and truthful and that they are aligned with prevailing community standards. They cover all material over which the advertiser has a reasonable degree of control and apply to all media and digital platforms.
AANA’s CEO John Broome (main photo) said: “In recent years, we have evolved the definition of advertising, as technological and other advances have fundamentally changed the nature of commercial communication, to help ensure that the Codes apply to new forms of marketing, such as user generated content on brand websites and influencer marketing on social media platforms.
“We now want to canvas opinions as to whether the Codes have evolved sufficiently in their application to meet these new challenges. We also want to canvass whether the Codes appropriately reflect contemporary community standards and concerns when it comes to matters such as the treatment of minors, the portrayal of genders, the use of sexual appeal and the treatment of different groups within our society.”
The AANA has released a discussion paper (download it here) to promote a dialogue with all stakeholders and to stimulate informed input to the review. The AANA invites submissions from all interested parties by 5pm on Friday, 18 October 2019.
