ICC Paper on Code Drafting : maintaining the effectiveness of self-regulation in marketing communications

To assure that there is trust and confidence in commercial communications, the business community strongly supports self-regulation predicated on the principle that advertising and marketing communications must be legal, decent, honest and truthful. To this end, the ICC has a long tradition of developing self-regulatory codes of practice for marketing communications.

ICC may decide to draft new codes or revise existing ones in this area on the basis of suggestions from members of the Marketing and Advertising Commission that have gained sufficient support. The ICC code drafting process is a deliberative one, requiring thoughtful evaluation of events and concerns identified by ICC members and national committees to develop a consensus about issues on which code guidance is needed and the nature of the guidance required for its practical global application. In some instances, guidance is included in a revision to the ICC Code. In others, the ICC members collectively determine that framework guidance, discussion papers or code interpretations are a preferred alternative to code revisions.

In identifying issues that merit action by the ICC, the business community draws on observations and experiences at national level, including changes in technology, new marketing communications vehicles and techniques, academic research, and concerns identified by consumers, regulatory authorities and other stakeholders. The ICC remains committed to a robust code revision process and will seek out information or insights from other stakeholders to inform its efforts where it deems it useful to do so.