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Home→The Westburn Dictionary of Marketing→I→IBA Code of Advertising Standards and Practice

IBA Code of Advertising Standards and Practice

Definition:
The document in which the INDEPENDENT BROADCASTING AUTHORITY (IBA) sets out its criteria for judging the content of broadcast advertising either acceptable or not. It is not at present clear how the Code will be affected by the replacement of the IBA by the RADIO AUTHORITY and INDEPENDENT TELEVISION COMMISSION in 1991. It was first drawn up as The ITA (Independent Television Authority) Code in 1964, successor to the more advisory Principles for Television Advertising, and became the IBA Code after the 1972 Sound Broadcasting Act converted the ITA into the IBA. It bears a deliberate close resemblance to the BRITISH CODE OF ADVERTISING PRACTICE relating to non-broadcast advertising, formulated in 1962. Parliament charged the IBA with the statutory duty to publish the Code and operate a mechanism for its enforcement in the Television Acts of 1954 and 1964 and the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act of 1973. The IBA Code of Advertising Standards and Practice says: 'The general principle which will govern all broadcast advertising is that it should be legal, decent, honest and truthful.' Thirty clauses set out specific restrictions; three detailed appendices deal with advertising and children, financial advertising and the advertising of medicines and treatments. The Code is enforced by mandatory pre-clearance of all television and radio advertising by a Joint Copy Clearance Secretariat operated on behalf of the IBA by the ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT RADIO CONTRACTORS and INDEPENDENT TELEVISION COMPANIES ASSOCIATION. It is estimated that 9,000 television commercials are submitted to the Secretariat each year. Details of the mechanism are given under INDEPENDENT BROADCASTING AUTHORITY. The IBA received just over 2,000 complaints about television commercials in 1988/9, 20 per cent fewer than in the previous year.

Cross-References:
[Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA)] [Association of Independent Radio Contractors (AIRC)] [British Code of Advertising Practice] [Independent Television Commission] [Radio Authority] [Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA)] [Independent Television Companies Association (ITCA)]

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© Westburn Publishers Ltd 2002, The Westburn Dictionary of Marketing edited by Michael J Baker, ISBN 978-0-946433-01-8. www.themarketingdictionary.com. Entry: [Keith Crosier], [1998].