The Advertising Association promotes the role and rights of responsible advertising and its value to people, society, businesses and the economy. We represent UK advertisers, agencies, media owners and tech companies on behalf of the entire industry, acting as the connection between industry professionals and the politicians and policy-makers.

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The Advertising Association focuses on major industry and policy areas that have huge ramifications on UK advertising. This section contains our work around Brexit, HFSS and gambling advertising, data and e-privacy, trust, the digital charter and our Industrial Strategy campaigns.

Credos is the advertising industry’s independent think tank. It produces research, evidence and reports into the impact and effectiveness of and public and political response to advertising on behalf of UK advertisers in order to enable the industry to make informed decisions.

Front Foot is our industry’s member network of over 50 businesses across UK advertising. It aims to promote the role of responsible advertising and its value to people, society and the economy through a coalition of senior leaders from advertisers, agencies and media owners.

We run a number of events throughout the year, from our annual LEAD summit to the Media Business Course and regular breakfast briefings for our members. We are also the official UK representative for the world’s biggest festival of creativity – Cannes Lions.

ADVERTISING MATTERS 28.05.21

/ May 28th 2021 / Ellie Mason
Industry News

TWO WEEKS TO ALL IN!

There are just two weeks until the All In Summit where we will be revealing the findings from the largest every study of our workforce, the All In Census, completed by over 16,000 advertising professionals, and setting out the All In Action plan to achieve greater inclusivity in our industry!

Join us on 10 June to hear about:

  • How ethnicity is represented across all levels of the industry
  • The experience and representation of disabled talent
  • How social mobility features in our profession
  • The gender balance and pay levels across the workforce
  • The structure of age levels across all levels of the industry
  • People’s lived experiences at work, both good and bad

… and much more!

If you can’t attend the whole morning, that’s not a problem, sign up and you will be able to access the sessions on demand from the following day. You can view the full agenda, check out the speaker line-up and book your ticket here, and do share this with your teams too to make sure no one misses out!

SIGN UP TO BRILLIANT CREATIVE MINDS

A coalition of industry bodies including ourselves at the Advertising Association, Crown Commercial Service, NABS, the IPA, the Alliance of Independent Agencies, ISBA and Social & Local CIC, are calling on the industry to pledge commitment to mental wellbeing and creativity by signing up to the Brilliant Creative Minds Code of Conduct.

Brilliant Creative Minds is a mental health and wellbeing campaign for the advertising and communications industry and its aim is to eradicate practices in procurement, commissioning and agency cultures that compromise mental health and wellbeing. For example, long hours culture and fear of job loss in agencies, and unrealistic client timescales and demands.

You can find more information, read the Code of Conduct and sign up here. The campaign was also covered in the media in titles such as Little Black BookThe Drum and Campaign Magazine.

WESTMINSTER OBESITY DEBATE

Yesterday there was a debate in the House of Commons on implementing the 2020 Obesity Strategy, which includes the Government’s proposals to introduce a 9PM watershed on TV and total online ban on HFSS advertising. We were pleased to see concern raised from both sides of the House about the proposals.

Jonathan Lord MP (Con, Woking) said that the policies were not evidence-based, would harm the advertising and media industries, and could drive investment away from the UK market altogether, arguing that the Government should pursue more effective and pro-active initiatives such as the Daily Mile and localised projects as seen in Leeds and Wakefield. Andy Carter MP (Con, Warrington South) drew attention to the detrimental effect such restrictions would have on public service broadcasting and urged Government to invest instead in education to address obesity rates in the most deprived parts of the country, while Andrew Lewer MP (Con, Northampton South) said that the measures fell foul of the core conservative principles of freedom and liberty. Alex Norris MP (Lab, Nottingham North), Shadow Minister for Public Health, asked for assurance that Ministers would work closely with the advertising industry to develop alternatives to legislative action for the online space.

Jo Churchill, Minister for Prevention, Public Health and Primary Care, responded on behalf of the Government, stating that policies would enable consumers to make better choices and live healthier lifestyles. She rejected the argument that the Government was banning advertising, stating that it would be offering the greatest marketing and advertising opportunity coming out of the coronavirus crisis.

Although it wasn’t mentioned in the debate, the Government still has not published its response to the 2019 and 2020 consultations but we expect this in the next few weeks.

THIS WEEK: UK ADVERTISING IN THE MEDIA

In our weekly series we are pulling together, in one place, a selection of must-reads from across our industry media.

Click here to check it out!

AD OF THE WEEK

You’ve made it this far – why not treat yourself and watch our ad of the week?

Want the full edition to land in your inbox every Friday? Drop us an email on aa@adassoc.org.uk and quote ‘Ad Matters’.