Advertising industry and self-regulation

Sir, – In “Should the advertising watchdog have more bite?” (Bernice Harrison, Media, Business, July 5th), the question should not be whether the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) should have more bite, but whether we should have the ASAI as the relevant advertising authority at all.

The ASAI code regulates advertising in Ireland, but this code is self-regulatory. When self-regulation relies upon industry for its operation, monitoring and control, this effectively makes the industry police, judge and jury – a recipe for failure. The lack of independent systems of regulation highlights the conflict between the role of industry in promoting its interests while simultaneously claiming effective regulatory authority.

Self-regulatory codes are not – and should not be viewed as – an appropriate mechanism to ensure that children are effectively protected from harmful marketing. Self-regulation is widely promoted by industry as an alternative to legislation and we have seen this with the voluntary rules for the marketing of high fat, salt and sugar foods that were launched by government in 2018 and then regurgitated by the ASAI in their 2021 revised codes. Yet children are still, if not even more, exposed to junk food marketing.

The Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill currently going through the Oireachtas will set up the new Media Commission which will develop media service and online safety codes. This is the chance to ensure that non-statutory, ineffective mechanisms are not considered as part of the advertising regulatory framework, particularly around junk food marketing.