International Council on Ad Self-Regulation launched

At the biannual meeting which took place between 24 and 26 October 2016 in Lisbon, EASA launched a new International Council on Ad Self-Regulation (ICAS) %u2013 an international platform to promote effective advertising self-regulation worldwide. ICAS will unite global Self-Regulatory Organisations (SROs) and international industry associations to form a council that will facilitate the set up of new SROs in emerging markets, help empower them and provide a platform to discuss and work on solutions regarding the global challenges faced by the advertising industry.

Amongst its founding members, ICAS can count SROs from Asia Pacific, North America, South America, as well as several of the largest European SROs. Through EASA, all European SROs and Industry associations will be represented, thus becoming part of the network of the new ICAS.

On the side of the industry the most notable founding member of ICAS is the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) which has been driving the development of ICAS together with EASA.

At the constitutional ICAS meeting on 26 October, the ICAS standing orders were approved and Mr José Domingo Gómez Castallo, Director of the Spanish SRO AUTOCONTROL, was elected as first ICAS Chairman. With four Vice-Chairpersons to support him as well as an Executive Committee, Mr Gómez Castallo will now create a strategy and action plan for the new organisation.

The already appointed Vice-Chairpersons are: Fiona Jolly, CEO of the Australian Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB), Karla Avila Jiménez, Director General of CONAR Mexico and, as Industry Vice Chairman, Stephan Loerke, CEO of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). Members of the Executive Committee include Gilberto Leifert, President of CONAR Brazil, Jani Yates, President and CEO of Advertising Standards Canada, and Stéphane Martin in his role as Chairman of EASA.

Stephan Loerke, the elected Industry Vice-Chairman of ICAS concluded: "At a time where our industry is embracing global digital marketing platforms and where global regulators are driving the legislative agenda, the launch of ICAS is a timely and critically important initiative. It creates a truly global platform which will enable industry to deploy self-regulation systems in emerging markets and align best-practices across the globe."

About ICAS

The new ICAS is building on an existing network of international Self-Regulatory Organisations which was set up by EASA in 2008 as a global forum for information exchange, discussion of best practice, and communication between SROs around the world. With its own budget, operations, and staff, ICAS will develop to become a strong and independent platform from EASA, playing a fundamental role in the promotion and development of advertising self-regulation worldwide.