Regulating Outdoor Advertising?

Will billboards be rated in the future? Just weeks into a federal government inquiry into outdoor advertising, the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) is preparing for a fight.

Scott McClellan, AANA’s chief executive, said the present system of self-regulation was the most efficient, flexible and cost-effective means of ensuring that advertising continued to meet community expectations. ”AANA codes are technology and platform neutral and already apply across the board to all media and all advertisers, including outdoor advertisements,” he said.

However, the chairman of the government inquiry, Graham Perrett, said while the AANA had some good guidelines in place, not everyone who put up an ad was a member of the AANA and there were plenty of ”cowboys” in the industry.

Mr. Perrett said because outdoor advertising spanned federal, state and local jurisdictions, regulation was difficult but not impossible.

Per Mr. Perrett, the inquiry is planning to report back to the government by the end of June, after public hearings in Sydney and Melbourne.