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This paper seeks to develop a clearer understanding of the operations and decisions made by Australian advertising standards bodies, the Advertising Standards Council and its successor, the Advertising Standards Board. It also seeks to identify whose interests have been served by these advertising standards organisations – those of the public or those of the advertising industry.

Using annual reports and reports in mainstream press outlets, this paper compares the two advertising standards bodies, their respective organisational structures, and their decisions, in order to identify the key issues that have confronted Australia's advertising regulation bodies.

In addition to demonstrating the fundamental similarities between the Advertising Standards Council and the Advertising Standards Board, this paper raises serious questions about self‐regulation and the way that it serves the advertising industry's interests ahead of the public interest.

This is the first long‐term comparative survey of the operations, activities and decisions of the Advertising Standards Council and the Advertising Standards Board that also reveals the fundamental shortcomings of the current advertising standards codes.

Advertising is the most visible element of modern marketing, however it is often accused by its critics of being intrusive and pervasive, and neither of these accusations can be refuted by a worldwide industry which spends billions of dollars each year reaching and persuading its target markets through daily bombardment of hundreds, if not thousands, of advertisements in most developed countries. In this article a conceptual framework of “acceptable advertising” is presented, discussed, and used to analyse the regulation of advertising in five countries around the world. The exercise succeeds in enhancing our understanding about how to improve the acceptability of advertising in contemporary societies.

This paper aims to outline the historic development of advertising regulation that governs food advertising to children in Australia. Through reviewing primary and secondary literature, such as government reports and research, this paper examines the influence of various regulatory policies that limit children’s exposure to food and beverage marketing on practices across television (TV), branded websites and Facebook pages.

This paper reviews studies performed by the food industry and public health researchers and reviews of the evidence by government and non-government agencies from the early 19th century until the present day. Also included are several other research studies that evaluate the effects of self-regulation on Australian TV food advertising.

The government, public health and the food industry have attempted to respond to the rapid changes within the advertising, marketing and media industries by developing and reviewing advertising codes. However, self-regulation is failing to protect Australian children from exposure to unhealthy food advertising.

The findings could aid the food and beverage industry, and the self-regulatory system, to promote comprehensive and achievable solutions to the growing obesity rates in Australia by introducing new standards that keep pace with expanded forms of marketing communication.

This study adds to the research on the history of regulation of food advertising to children in Australia by offering insights into the government, public health and food industry’s attempts to respond to the rapid changes within the advertising, marketing and media industries by developing and reviewing advertising codes.

As the most visible element of the marketing communications mix advertising has had its critics over the years and developed countries usually opt for a self‐regulatory approach to deal with unacceptable advertising. The recent breakdown of one of the world’s longest established advertising self‐regulatory programs in Australia has reopened the 20 year‐old debate that has taken place in the leading academic and business journals concerned with improving the effectiveness of such regulatory systems. One of the key changes in this area is the increasing dominance of the rival advertisers in the complaints process. This article presents a model of effective advertising self‐regulation and reports on the key findings of an Australian study. The empirical work, utilising a mix of qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques, succeeds in making both a practical and theoretical contribution to this important area.

This paper aims to unveil colonial racist elements related to the cases of racism in advertising judged by the Brazilian Council of Advertising Self-Regulation (Conar), from 1980 until 2020.

A qualitative critical and historical research was developed, based on a decolonial perspective, with the use of critical discourse analysis (CDA).

By analyzing such phenomenon, the present study can discuss how self-regulatory codes that are based on the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) 1937 Code are not equipped to deal with racist issues.

Discussions that focus on how racial elements in advertising are treated by a regulatory agency are scarce. Despite the focus being on the Brazilian case, this phenomenon should not be understood as a particularity of this country, since problems related to racism in advertising in countries that also have ICC-type self-regulatory codes are frequent.

The purpose of this article is to bring together established research in the field of consumer complaint responses: to contextualise this research into the area of complaints about advertising in Australia; and to empirically test the proposition that it is possible to construct a profile of complainants about advertising in Australia.

Postcodes obtained from the Advertising Standards Board complaints database were entered into Pacific Micromarketing's MOSAIC software, which uses data at the postcode level to cluster individuals into homogeneous groups.

Characteristics shared among consumers who engage in “amplified voicing” include above average income levels, above average disposable income levels, higher than average education levels, professional and associate professional occupations, middle‐ to late‐middle‐aged household heads and above average representation of working women. Their interests tend towards culture, technology, entertaining, sport, food and fashion.

Complainants seem to be unrepresentative of those most likely to be disadvantaged by “unacceptable” advertising. It is suggested that it now falls to advertising professionals and marketing academics to encourage greater involvement of all members of Australian society in the current complaints process and build wider understanding of practices that contravene the regulatory system.

This study investigates the effects of advertising on consumers and hence on society in general, and examines the changing nature and structure of the advertising self‐regulatory system in Australia. Though based on fieldwork in Australia, it provides an international perspective, and is potentially transferable to other societies.

Outlines Indian law relating to advertising to children, and stresses that the legislation has far to go in order to meet European and American standards. Explains the provisions of the Cable Act on books and magazines, focusing next on the controversial children’s TV programme series “Shaktiman”, which has caused child fatalities. Moves on the lack of guidelines over acceptable advertising or the use of child models in advertisements; there are however specific laws and a procedure for complaints to the Advertising Standards Council, and control of the Internet is strict, while the Board of Film Certification awards viewing ratings. Concludes that the laws relating to advertising to children, while better than they were, are not comprehensive and are often flouted; there is no restriction on advertising to schools, although there are guidelines on the sale of cigarettes and alcohol, and the government’s emphasis on breastfeeding has led it to prohibit the promotion of commercial alternative baby foods.

This article investigates the complaints leveled at alcohol advertisements to determine the kinds of ads that attract complaints and to what extent Ready‐to‐Drink (RTD) advertising accounts for these. The research will have relevance to all countries where RTDs have developed market share. The results show that ads for beer, spirits and especially RTDs (when Share‐of‐Complaint versus Share‐of‐Market is considered) attract the greatest number of complaints. Wine ads played a negligible role. Over.96% of alcohol ads attracting complaints used either a humorous or a sexual advertising appeal, the results emphasizing the risky nature of the humorous appeal. Rational, emotional, fear, and scarcity appeals made no impact on the findings.

Leraning outcomes are as follows: demonstrating how companies in the Indian market are using competitive advertising; giving participants an overview of the regulatory framework for advertising in India; highlighting the complexities arising out of the multiplicity of advertising regulations and institutions in India; appreciating the legal and ethical perspectives of advertisements and self-regulation; and evaluating the stance taken by both the parties in this particular case to develop multi-stakeholder perspective.

A recent advertisement by international conglomerate Hindustan Unilever Limited was severely criticized for insulting Indian values by Baba Ramdev, promoter of India's largest Ayurvedic Company selling Indian indigenous and natural alternate medicinal products. It was in a complete reversal of the scenario between 2015 and 2018 when other Indian consumer goods companies complained against advertisements released by Patanjali. Indian fast moving consumer goods sector is witnessing a trend of competitive advertising in which companies are downplaying and criticizing the competitors. Though quite old, this trend caught momentum when Patanjali Ayurved Limited, a new player in the market, started advertising aggressively in 2015–2016. It resulted in many complaints by the aggrieved parties in the industry bodies and different courts of law in India. A part of the confusion comes from the diversity of advertising regulations across different Indian platforms and the absence of a clearly defined institutional framework for resolving such disputes. Consequently, most such disputes land up in the court of law in India. The case study builds an understanding of the legal framework within which companies are governed for brand promotions and creates a contextual ethical dilemma to drive the discourse on advertising through self-regulation in India.

This case is meant to benefit students pursuing a graduate or upper-level undergraduate degree in management or law/business law.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Environmental claims in advertising (green ads) provide competitive advantage to firms. This study aims to understand what kinds of environmental claims advertisers make in a developing nation like India. Further, implications for policymakers and advertisers are discussed.

A content analysis of 279 green print advertisements was conducted using a comprehensive list of claim categories identified from the advertising literature. These categories included advertiser profile; ad promotions – type, sector, appeal; claim – nature, type, focus, validity, emphasis; executional elements – illustration setting, presenter, format/structure and environmental issue, identified from past studies and practitioner interviews.

The findings suggest that majority of the advertisers using green ads are manufacturers. Consumer durables, real estate and power sector together constitute one-third of the total green ads. Further, most of the green ads are aimed at influencing consumer behaviour. Though most of the ads contain strong emphasis on environmental attributes, they are ambiguous. A large proportion of claims are credence in nature and lack product identification through environmental certifications. This study also identifies areas of concern including interpretation of the term green, use of multiple certifications, greenwashing and advertisers showing environmental responsiveness through event-based green advertising. Policy recommendations are made based on green advertising regulations governing them across developed and other developing countries.

The content analysis of the green advertisements in this study was limited to newspaper advertisements within the print media. Future studies may use advertisements from different media types, such as the internet ads and television commercials, to examine the effect of media type on the nature of green advertisements. It would also be interesting to examine the role of regulations as a moderator, influencing the claims made in green advertisements.

The findings of this study provide a comprehensive overview of the nature of green advertisements in India. Marketers may use these insights to design effective green advertising strategies.

Most of the extant literature has examined environmental claims in the context of developed nations, where regulations are well established. Very few studies have examined this issue in the context of developing countries. In addition, most of the previous studies have focused on specific issues like greenwashing, appeals and execution elements. The present study contributes to green advertising by examining environmental claims in case of a developing nation like India using a comprehensive list of claim categories. This study also identifies areas of concern and suggests recommendations for policymakers and advertisers.