Industry veteran Marsden to rewrite ASA rule book

Veteran marketer Andrew Marsden is set to lead a review of the UK’s advertising code of practice, the first in almost a decade. The decision comes a year after the Advertising Standards Authority remit was extended to include broadcast advertising.

The former Britvic marketing director has been drafted in by regulator CAP (Committee of Advertising Practice), the rule maker for all broadcast and non-broadcast advertising in the UK, to chair the “code review” working group. Marsden has been installed by CAP chairman Andrew Brown to rewrite the advertising code in an attempt to bring together broadcast and non-broadcast codes of practice.

A consultation on the review will be open to the public in the last quarter of 2008, with the final codes coming into place in the last quarter of 2009.

Marsden is currently on gardening leave following his departure from Britvic after ten years leading the company’s marketing department.

He is credited with leading some of Britvic’s biggest launches, including adult soft drink J20. He also relaunched the iconic Robinsons brand after Britvic acquired it from Reckitt & Colman in 1995.

Marsden holds a number of high profile industry roles, such as president of The Marketing Society. He has also presided on the executive committee of advertisers’ trade by ISBA, and is on the Government’s advisory committee on advertising, overseeing the Central Office of Information and other state marketing activity. He is director of the Broadcasting Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP).