EU rules, OK?(the effect of the European Union on advertising law and the UK)
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UK advertisers have been slow to recognise, let alone react to, the impact of EU legislation. Monitoring developments in Europe should be at the top of UK marketers’ agenda. Since the UK signed the Treaty of Rome 30 years ago the home market has effectively been Europe, not the UK. But now, more than ever, the media landscape where communications stopped at national borders is being consigned to the history books. Satellite TV and the internet make it difficult to isolate national debates from European, or even global ones. And with many traditional British advertisers forming part of bigger European or global organisations, marketers that treat Europe as a boring aside may be in for a nasty shock. “The importance of Europe is only just dawning on many British advertisers, and they tend to be the ones that operate abroad. Lots of local advertisers still think they can fix things at a local level,” says Stephan Loerke, European affairs director at the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) in Brussels. By the time legislation trickles down to Westminster, “you’re talking about the details of implementation, not whether or not it’s a good thing”, says Loerke. “That decision has been taken already.” But while the marketing industry has been slow to grasp the importance of Europe, others have been much quicker off the mark — not least consumer organisations, non-governmental organisations, and pressure groups such as Greenpeace. Such bodies are, says Loerke, “very influential and networked and active in Brussels. They understand the importance of participating in the debate. We have to catch up very quickly or we will be at a severe disadvantage.” It’s not just smaller companies which are parochial or naive. Lionel Stanbrook, managing director of legal and public affairs consultancy DLA Upstream and former deputy director of the Advertising Association (AA) says:… |