The T&T Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA) hopes to have an overarching guideline document on advertising standards collated within the next two weeks, said TTPBA president, Daren Lee Sing, yesterday. He said his organisation met this week to look at and read through the current advertising standards and would put together guidelines from other countries and present a written document to be agreed to before the end of the month “It is after we collate the document, we will present this to the advertising agencies, political parties and chambers and help them understand that these are guidelines we should all subscribe to,” Lee Sing said. He felt it was important those guidelines were in place before the general election next year.
The TTPBA met with the Advertising Agencies Association (AAATT) last week to discuss advertising standards, in light of a set of recent advertisements from the Citizens 4D Highway group. The advertisements, regarded as offensive and distasteful by some, began with an image designed to look like a T&T Guardian newspaper story about a new species called “the Kublal”. The group has since published newspaper, online, radio and television advertisements criticising the media over what it perceived as a violation of its freedom of expression. Two newspapers refused to publish the material and all three have suspended them, pending the outcome of the TTPBA discussions.
Advertising rules
The T&T Bureau of Standards’ Requirements for Advertising says ads should not contain anything that can “prejudice respect for human dignity, or that is likely to be offensive to public decency (or cause serious or widespread offence), especially on the grounds of race, religion, sex or disability.” Under this specific heading the standard admonished advertisers as follows: “As advertisements may be distasteful without necessarily conflicting with the clauses listed, advertisers are urged to consider public sensitivities before using potentially offensive material.”
Section 4.4 says: “Advertisements shall not be worded or designed so as to exploit or abuse the credulity, lack of knowledge or inexperience of consumers.” Section 4.9, on “Defamatory References and Denigration”, says “an advertisement shall not contain any direct or implied reference to any brand name for goods other than that advertised, or to any person, organisation, firm or institution other than that advertised which may bring the other goods, person, organisation, firm or institution into contempt or ridicule.”
This section also says: “The responsibility for compliance with these standards rests with (a) the advertiser or the agency which created the advertisement or who placed the advertisement in the medium used and (b) the publisher, the owner of the medium used, or the contractor who publishes or distributes the advertisement.”