Those who defend advertising against the ‘heinous and deranged’
Eurocrats like to cite the domino effect as justification. For those
with short memories, the term was coined by the Americans to rationalise
the Vietnam War. If Vietnam fell to the communists, they said, then
Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, and goodness knows where, would soon
follow. Hmmm.
But that is not to say that the theory doesn’t apply to the European
Parliament and its various attacks on advertising and the media
(Campaign, last week). So far, the European Union, in its various
guises, has sniped at a number of areas of advertising - from regulating
minutage to imposing EC-sourced programme quotas on broadcasters, and
from tobacco to alcohol and toys. It hasn’t succeeded yet, but that
doesn’t mean the threat has receded. As a high-profile business, with a
soft underbelly, advertising will always be an easy target.
Whingeing about the iniquities of the EU and European Parliament won’t
solve the problem. But making a considered and consistent case for
advertising, and its role in society and the economy, would limit the
damage. The trouble is, nobody really does this. By shrouding itself in
mystique and choosing opacity over transparency, the ad industry - and
that includes advertisers - is offering itself up as a target to
regulators, legislators and the media.
Recently, a TV researcher contacted Campaign in connection with a
current affairs programme about alcohol and advertising. No agency or
client, it seemed, was happy to appear on the programme. In this
context, are we surprised that legislators go for advertising? For an
industry that is all about communications, it actually does a very bad
job of putting across its arguments to a key target audience of MPs,
Euro MPs and opinion-formers. Prevention, as we know, is better than a
cure, so maybe the advertising industry should take the initiative and
make its case rather than waiting for yet another attack.
