Week 6 Discussion Relationship Between Advertising, Agency & Media: Advertising Laws & Regulations one of the most explicit forms of conditioned power in modern industrial societies is exercised through advertising. -Professor John Kenneth Galbrath in his publication on Anatomy of Power. Advertising has been popularly defined as a form of non-personal communication through the media about products, services or ideas paid for by an identified sponsor. Kotler and Keller (2006) posited that Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation of good, services or ideas by an identified sponsor. Considering the enormous power of advertising, it is of importance that the target audience should be protected through responsible practice. The Tripartite Structure & Relationship Advertising, as a practice and a high profile business is built on a tripartite industry structure that comprises three interdependent autonomous sectors with lots of subsectors. This structure has hardly changed in almost two centuries: the first has the advertisers who have something to say or sell, and pay for the advertising service. Advertisers are a group of marketing, manufacturing, financial services companies that applied advertising as a vital component of their businesses, and came together to establish their own National trade body with primary mandates to responsibly promote members business interests. Some examples are: Great Britain- Incorporated Society of British Advertisers(ISBA); USA-American Marketers Association (AMA)/Association of National Advertisers(ANA); Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN); The Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA). The second sector is the media owners such as the Press, Television, Radio, Cinema, Out-of-home (bill boards), and the New (Social) Media who transmit and place advertisements which are directed at consumers. Some of the media trade groups are North American Broadcasters Association (NABA); Broadcasting Organizations of Nigeria(BON); Association of Canadian Publishers/Canadian Cable Television Association; The Association for Commercial Broadcasters and On-demand Services (COBA). The third sector of the tripartite advertising industry is agency(s) which is a professional service company that employs specialists or knowledge workers in art, marketing, copywriting, media planning and media buying who plan, create, produce and place advertisements in the media on behalf of the advertisers(clients). Some of the trade groups for agency business sector are Institute of Advertising Practitioners (IPA) of Great Britain; Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN); American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA); Institute of Canadian Agencies (ICA). Of note is that advertising, is regulated from two fronts: the practitioners and advertisement content are both regulated. Besides statutory control, all the trade groups of the three sectors of the advertising industry have self-rules and regulate the activities of their members through time tested Code of Conducts. Legal Regulations i. Business Relationship The Agency which includes brand consultants, creative boutiques and hot shops acts on behalf of the advertisers(Clients) when transacting businesses with the suppliers which includes the models, voice over artistes, media, print and broadcast producers, photographers during the creation of advertisements. The Agency is a principal at law when acting on behalf of advertiser(Clients). The Agency derives its income from two sources: earns commission from the suppliers and professional service or handling fees from advertiser who is the Client. An Agency can sue and can be sued by anyone during the course of its duty. ii. Advertisement Vetting/Clearance Vetting and clearance of advertising materials are administered using the Code of Practice of the Countrys industry constituted bodies. In Great Britain Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of IPA; in Nigeria, Advertising Standards Panel (ASP): In Canada, Advertising Standards Canada(ASC). These bodies promote responsible practice and community confidence in advertising through vetting and clearance of pre-exposure advertising materials in the media, reviews of consumer complaints. Reference Marketing Management (2006)- Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller (15th Ed); Pearson, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 07458