The shocking state of the ad industry…

Is it any wonder that the marketing industry is held in such low esteem by an increasingly sceptical and suspicious public? Just ask anyone on the street what they really think about all the hard selling they’re constantly faced with.

Last week (MW March 15) we read how some highly-questionable shock campaigns are being used by advertisers, simply to generate press coverage of their products – it will certainly be interesting to see how the US deals with it.

This week we see that the ASA is washing its hands of all responsibility for political ads as we run up to the election. Excuse me, isn’t the ASA supposed to act as watchdog?

But to cap it all, I was horrified to see the promotion of offensive T-shirts for babies (MW March 22). This surely illustrates that the level of responsibility in this industry is at the lowest depths possible.

I would be out on my ear if I ever tried similar tactics in the public sector, yet with the ASA giving a no-holds-barred message to political ads, concern for standards across the whole promotions industry must surely now be raised.

Mark Lepkowski

PR Manager

Stratford-on-Avon District Council