The Advertising Association (AA) wholly supports the new Advertising Codes published by CAP and BCAP. They are the result of a timely and thorough process with which the AA has been fully engaged.

CAP and BCAP have worked diligently to ensure that people’s reasonable concerns are met at the same time as maintaining crucial balance and proportion. The more streamlined approach, including a single Broadcast Code for TV and Radio in place of the existing four – and a new format to ease interpretation and navigation, is designed to improve accessibility for the public and maintain the industry’s high record of compliance.

The responsibilities of advertising lie at the forefront of the AA’s remit, and the UK’s regulatory system is considered the best in the world. This Code Review will help to ensure that consumers continue to trust the Advertising Standards Authority and UK advertising as being legal, decent, honest and truthful.

We look forward to the implementation of the new Codes and to their extension to marketer’s websites which we see as the crucial subsequent step following on.

The Advertising Association has submitted the industry's recommendations to the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), for the extension of the non-broadcast Advertising Code in digital media, which will be administered by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). This landmark move for advertising self-regulation seeks to address societal concerns and will increase protection for consumers.

The recommendations, if accepted, will bring companies’ marketing communications on their own websites, and other non-paid for space online, such as brand activity on social networking sites, within scope of the CAP Code. All other marketing communications activity in paid-for space online – such as search marketing and display advertising – is already within the ASA’s remit and subject to the CAP Code.

The Future Foundation today announced it is joining the Advertising Association's (AA) Front Foot initiative as an active partner in kicking off the programme of thinking and research about the future of advertising.

Melanie Howard, Future Foundation's Chair, is to act as Special Advisor to CREDOS, the AA's Front Foot research faculty, which has been established to collate and disseminate research to support advertising's positive role in Society. The Future Foundation, a privately-owned consumer and social trends consultancy, looks at the changing world through a 'consumer lens' and is well-positioned to help in this important first phase of the AA's Front Foot initiative.

The AA is calling on its stakeholders to pull together the ammunition to support, buttress and prove advertising's worth. The Future Foundation will work with CREDOS to create a challenging view of the consumer context for the future of advertising and explore the trends that will affect that in the short, medium and longer term. This will form the basis for engaging wider audiences in the debate about the issues and opportunities facing the industry.

The Advertising Association says the advertising community is committed to ensuring self-regulation of the industry is effective and that advertisers act responsibly in any marketing to children, in all media, including online.