Summer 2017 / Issue 54
approved on an international level
starts with the following words:
All marketing communications
should be legal, decent, honest and
truthful. All marketing communi-
cations should be prepared with a
due sense of social and professional
responsibility and should conform
to the principles of fair competition,
as generally accepted in business.
No communication should be such
as to impair public confidence in
marketing.
By including just these three sen-
tences into the DNA of our work, we
take a big step toward ethical com-
munications and advertising.
The next step in establishing
self-regulatory activities in a market
is by founding a self-regulatory orga-
nization (SRO) to enforce the Code
of Conduct. This is where countries
differ a lot! For example, all current
EU members already had adopted
a Code of Conduct in advertising
prior to accession. However, not all
of them had the same level of SRO
activity. Hungary, for example, had
an active self-regulatory organization
for over 20 years; Bulgaria has been
working on it since 2001 and has
had a functioning SRO for the last
7 years; in the past couple of years,
Croatia activated an SRO, the Court
of Honor, within the Croatian Associ-
ation of Advertising Agencies.
The most inspirational example is
provided by Spain, where self-reg-
ulation has quite simply taken over.
They started reservedly, unsure
whether that they would manage to
regulate anything significantly; that
was some twenty years ago. When
agencies and advertisers made a
deal and were joined by TV stations
and the rest of the media (note: TV
stations there are now the biggest
users of SRO), their success was
complete. They are now the best
example among all the members of
the European Advertising Standards
Alliance. State institutions and regu-
lators defer to them on questions of
right or wrong; what a victory for the
profession!
So, where is Serbia in that dynamic,
continuously self-regulating world?
COVER STORY
Historically, we had a number of different phases and attempts in
this direction. The most recent one started several years ago and
accomplished quite a lot in a short time by working and learning
at the same time. We are now closer to those markets which
“clean their own backyards”. We are supported by EASA as
well as regional experts. The Serbian branch of the International
A dvertising Association (IAA) also played a very important role in
this process. Four years ago, the IAA began establishing Serbia
self-regulation.
We created the first version of the Serbian National Code of
Advertising based on the consolidated Code of Conduct of the
International Chamber of Commerce and numerous similar doc-
uments. The Code was endorsed by most experts and relevant
associations. In the meantime, the IAA organized two conferences
on self-regulation and SROs, featuring experienced colleagues
from the region, Spain and from international organizations. The
new Advertising Law, aligned with EU directives, went into force
in May 2016. This new law has a very important addition in Arti-
cle 5 called Business Rules: in other words, self-regulation. Our
profession fought long and hard for this. We now have a Code
as well as a new Law that generally addresses the profession’s
needs and expectations and explicitly recognizes self-regulation
as a legitimate means of regulation. All we have to do now is
officially establish our SRO. In addition to enforcing our Code, we
also need a system to protect, build and empower brands and
advertisers; build the credibility of agencies and help the media,
given they are on the front line with respect to controversial adver-
tising messages. Such a system will do a better job protecting
consumers and earning their trust.
To conclude, Serbia is close to “cleaning up its own backyard”.
Self-regulation is faster, more efficient and simpler. Through
self-regulation, the industry is becoming an active interlocutor
with lawmakers, which also means assuming a lot of responsibil-
ity! To us as an industry, responsibility is a very meaningful word,
because it results in higher ethical standards!
AmCham Macedonia Magazine
9