ICC Marketing Commission appoints Sheila Millar as Vice Chair

Ms Millar has been leading the Commission’s Working Group on Sustainability for five years and has played a critical role both in the development of ICC’s Framework for Responsible Environmental Marketing Communications and the advocacy efforts undertaken to promote it. With vast experience counselling companies, regulators and government in the fields of sustainability and environmental claims, marketing and advertising to children and data protection, Ms Millar brings important technical understanding and legal expertise to the work of the commission. An active advocate of ICC work, Ms Millar has presented ICC codes and guidance to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Consumer Policy Committee and recently at a United Nations Environment Programme International Workshop on Product Sustainability Information. “Sheila’s appointment is a welcome addition to the leadership team of the commission. Her extensive experience and wealth of knowledge have been invaluable in developing recent ICC work products, engaging new participants and advocating ICC guidance to audiences around the world,” said Brent Sanders, Chair of the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising and Associate General Counsel, Microsoft Corporation. Ms Millar will be representing the commission and sharing her expertise at upcoming events in New York. On 7 June, the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising will present a seminar entitled ‘Consumer Savvy Marketing’ that will address privacy, data protection and child directed advertising, especially in the context of new technology and social media. Ms Millar has also been invited to present the environmental claims framework at an ICC event in conjunction with the RIO+20 conferences (20-22 June 2012), where heads of states, government representatives and others will meet to shape the future of our social environment and economy. “This appointment is a great honour and I look forward to helping ICC advance sound practices in marketing and robust industry self-regulation. In this digital era where information is readily exchanged, where children have access to information at the tips of their fingers, and where diverse environmental claims, such as “green/sustainable,” are the new selling points, many will look to ICC for guidance. Along with my fellow commission members, we will continue to provide best-practices and direction in these topics, as well as new ones that come our way,” said Ms Millar. ICC has been a major rule-setter in international advertising self-regulation since 1937, when the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising first issued the ICC Code on Advertising Practice – one of the most successful examples of business self-regulation ever developed. The revised Code was recently launched along with CodesCentre.com, a one-stop resource for industry, regulators and academics on self-regulation and advertising.