In the Throes of Advertising Regulation

Why regulate advertising at all? According to my former boss Professor Charles Okigbo, pioneer CEO of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and now of North Dakota State University, advertising is a growing industry that attracts a lot of negative attention and as such must be regulated.

Okigbo had referred to some British data which concluded that between 2% and 4% of all advertisements were ‘questionable’ as regards being false, misleading, unfair, and/or in bad taste. In sum, as much as two million to four million new advertisements fell into this category on an annual basis as at 1992 when Okigbo wrote. Today the percentage is not about to drop.

Having helped Nigeria regulate advertising consistently for almost 15 years, I would like to share some of the pains we go through in the process. APCON is supposed to be the sole government organ responsible for regulating and controlling advertising in all its aspects and ramifications. Unfortunately there are over 20 laws promulgated by the same government which directly conflict with Act 55 of 1988, the enabling APCON law.

Take the issue of time-belt for example, with regard to alcoholic beverages advertisement; while the APCON Code says such ads cannot be exposed on TV before 8 p.m. the National Broadcasting Code puts the time at 10p.m. Because the Commission licenses these stations its pronouncements are more revered.

Secondly, in spite of a scheme code-named ‘Window of Opportunity’, which saw APCON throwing its door open to anyone with a minimum of between five and ten years experience in advertising to get registered, available statistics still show that unregistered people in advertising by far outnumber the law-abiding ones. Justifiably worrying also is the fact that of the registered advertising practitioners in the country about 50% remain financial members. Technically therefore 50% of registered ad people may be practising illegally.

Thirdly poor funding is a phenomenon the Council will have to contend with for a long time. How do you effectively regulate an industry comprising players you regularly run to for one form of assistance or the other? I wonder why the APCON Act was deliberately weakened not to ‘regulate corporate organizations.’ Why limit its powers to individuals? Why, for example, can advertisers not remit royalties to APCON on each exposed campaign? Why can ad agencies not pay licence and licence renewal fees to APCON?

Fourthly there is a yawning gap existing between the Council and the sectorial groups. Why for example would the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) register agencies without first clearing the CEOs with APCON? It is also interesting that the association practically begs agencies headed by student members of APCON to belong to it!

I had found a highly disturbing column in the association’s May 2002 edition of Adnotes, AAAN’s monthly newsletter which “advertised” to ‘illegal’ practitioners to register their agencies with the association. And what was the association’s reason? -“For churning out good concepts!” What a shame! I do not want to be misunderstood; I appreciate creativity when I see its attributes and will give my total support to anything that will make it blossom.

Unfortunately, however, ours is a peculiar society. Statutory regulation therefore is no misnomer.

Still on incongruous sectorial policies, I find the role of our media organizations vis-à-vis advertising incredible; the quality of ads they feature all in the name of ‘freedom of expression’ and ‘free enterprise’ is simply nightmarish.

Because I write regularly for some marketing communication journals in Nigeria without indicating my place of work, a lot of people who probably have not seen me for sometime believe I could not be writing as a staff of APCON! I remember an incident a couple of years back when I used to share an open office with my staff- how badly I wanted to be concealed because of my ‘fame’! A gentleman I had not seen for almost a decade walked in, saw me and openly expressed surprise that I could be ‘educating’ the industry (through my articles) as an APCON staff!

I have a popular hypothesis which goes thus: “the federal government re- staff the organization with products of first generation universities whose least academic degree is a master of science degree, while the first degree cannot be less than a second class upper.” I usually conclude the hypothesis with the need to peg entry age at 26, while the CEO must not be more that 40 at every point in time.
That the government would do this is highly unlikely; I am just borrowing from the United States where the 1980s recorded three remarkable changes in the regulation of advertising and related promotions. The first was state involvement in national advertising regulation; the second was a severe downsizing of the Federal Trade Commission and; the third was the influx of Chicago School economists into the FTC.
These three developments have succeeded in having a stabilizing effect on the Commission's extreme swings (utexas.edu 2001).

APCON plays a special role and as such should not be run like a government ministry. These QUALITY staff must be handsomely remunerated and exposed to regular foreign seminars, symposia, conferences, exhibitions, etc. Employment should be based on contract, e.g. first three years, and renewable or not, afterwards. It should not be a pensionable job and employees must be regularly given targets to encourage them
to be self-driven.
Employees should be empowered to do a lot of the jobs presently done by committees. As a matter of fact, there should be no more than two committees complementing the ASP, the APIP (investigating panel) and the APDC (disciplinary committee) even as the entire Council is reconstituted to a total of no more than seven including the chairman; membership should not be skewed in favour of any sector.

How do you think APCON would be perceived if my hypothesis became a reality? No one should have any right to look down on the APCON staff- it only calls for true repositioning and total overhaul. My private finding is that the Council fails to get maximum cooperation from its various publics because of the way they perceive it. It is an irony that even the government whose interest APCON is supposed to be representing does not exactly understand what the organization does! Take NAFDAC for example (its enabling Act also clashes with APCON’s) - every Nigerian knows what it does!

As a pioneer staff of the Council I have an emotional attachment to APCON and its survival is a priority for me even long after my exit. Long live APCON, long live Advertising, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!