by Adonis HoffmanUnless something changes, advertising as we know it today could be headed for a cataclysmic run-in with policymakers who would like to impose more, not less, regulation on the industry. My suspicion—and fear—is that in a dynamic, fast-paced, new media environment, industry self-regulation may no longer be enough to withstand the inclination of government to regulate industries that it does not understand and are too large to ignore.
I believe there are twelve (12) indicators that portend more, not less, governmental regulation of advertising in the future.
Over the course of the next few days, I will comment on these indicia with a degree of, I hope, some insight.
I should say at the outset that none of these indicators have anything to do with a lack of effectiveness of industry self-regulation. As any astute observer will attest, the advertising industry’s self-regulatory framework works extremely well. It is efficient, saving government thousands, if not millions, of dollars in routine oversight and enforcement. It is effective, compelling compliance with well-recognized principles for ethical and responsible advertising. And the system has been lauded by successive chairmen of the Federal Trade Commission as a model for other industries to follow.
But sound reasoning and rationale has never been a deterrent to governmental intrusion before, and I’m afraid it may not be a deterrent going forward in the new media environment.
So, here goes:
The first sign of danger is advertising is a big industry, and it’s getting bigger.
At an estimated $600 billion, the advertising industry is large and growing. Even with cyclical expansion and retrenchment, the sector will continue to grow steadily over the next five to ten years. It is a juggernaut whose tentacles touch every other sector of the global economy.
Since its rather pedestrian beginnings at the turn of the century, advertising has become more sophisticated, more ubiquitous, and—according to its many critics—more intrusive than ever. Its reach is global. Its impact virtually incalculable, even though billions of dollars are spent each year trying to do just that. Measurement of advertising’s value and reach has become a science with its own lexicon and subculture. And the laws that have evolved to regulate, limit and allow advertising are multiplying, as cities and states join the federal government’s efforts to contain the advertising juggernaut.
Advertising is an indispensable element of competition, and competition spurs the technological innovation that makes appliances, cars, computers, personal services, and much of what we need to live, quite affordable indeed.
The tremendous growth of the Internet has opened up yet another medium for advertising products and services. Online advertising dollars recently eclipsed radio, and print, television and cable are sure to follow at some point in the not-too-distant future.
The salient point about the size of the advertising industry is not to stand it in competition with other industries. My concern is that advertising has grown much too large for government regulators and policymakers to ignore or leave alone. It remains one of the biggest industries—outside the Internet—that has remained largely underegulated. Or put a better way, it is one of the biggest industries with its own self-regulatory framework augmented by light-touch government regulation.
(c) 2008. All rights reserved
I believe there are twelve (12) indicators that portend more, not less, governmental regulation of advertising in the future.
Over the course of the next few days, I will comment on these indicia with a degree of, I hope, some insight.
I should say at the outset that none of these indicators have anything to do with a lack of effectiveness of industry self-regulation. As any astute observer will attest, the advertising industry’s self-regulatory framework works extremely well. It is efficient, saving government thousands, if not millions, of dollars in routine oversight and enforcement. It is effective, compelling compliance with well-recognized principles for ethical and responsible advertising. And the system has been lauded by successive chairmen of the Federal Trade Commission as a model for other industries to follow.
But sound reasoning and rationale has never been a deterrent to governmental intrusion before, and I’m afraid it may not be a deterrent going forward in the new media environment.
So, here goes:
The first sign of danger is advertising is a big industry, and it’s getting bigger.
At an estimated $600 billion, the advertising industry is large and growing. Even with cyclical expansion and retrenchment, the sector will continue to grow steadily over the next five to ten years. It is a juggernaut whose tentacles touch every other sector of the global economy.
Since its rather pedestrian beginnings at the turn of the century, advertising has become more sophisticated, more ubiquitous, and—according to its many critics—more intrusive than ever. Its reach is global. Its impact virtually incalculable, even though billions of dollars are spent each year trying to do just that. Measurement of advertising’s value and reach has become a science with its own lexicon and subculture. And the laws that have evolved to regulate, limit and allow advertising are multiplying, as cities and states join the federal government’s efforts to contain the advertising juggernaut.
Advertising is an indispensable element of competition, and competition spurs the technological innovation that makes appliances, cars, computers, personal services, and much of what we need to live, quite affordable indeed.
The tremendous growth of the Internet has opened up yet another medium for advertising products and services. Online advertising dollars recently eclipsed radio, and print, television and cable are sure to follow at some point in the not-too-distant future.
The salient point about the size of the advertising industry is not to stand it in competition with other industries. My concern is that advertising has grown much too large for government regulators and policymakers to ignore or leave alone. It remains one of the biggest industries—outside the Internet—that has remained largely underegulated. Or put a better way, it is one of the biggest industries with its own self-regulatory framework augmented by light-touch government regulation.
(c) 2008. All rights reserved
1 comment:
As long as advertising continues to target itself to potential "customers" instead of the available "audience" it will always miss the opportunity to be both meaningful and engaging. People are no longer confined to advertising as the sole source of information about the means to solve the problems associated with their unmet wants, needs and desires. As a result, advertising has migrated from an essential component of the "Go To Market" process to a nuisance factor to an audience that finds it increasingly self-serving and irrelevant to their decision making process. This transition from essential to irrelevant endangers the industry's future in regard to its position with potential regulatory and taxation advocates. A fact that has not been lost on advertising clients or the business media. Until the advertising industry wakes up to its quickly deteriorating perception, it will continue to find itself in harms way.
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