About ICC

ICC is the world business organization, the only representative body that speaks with authority on behalf of enterprises from all sectors in every part of the world. ICC promotes an open international trade and investment system and the market economy. Business leaders and experts drawn from ICC membership establish the business stance on broad trade and investment policy as well as on vital technical and sectoral subjects. ICC was founded in 1919 and today it groups thousands of member companies and associations from over 130 countries. Within a year of the creation of the United Nations, ICC was granted consultative status at the highest level with the UN and its specialized agencies.

About the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising

ICC has been a major rule-setter in international advertising self-regulation since 1937, when the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising first issued the Consolidated ICC Code on Advertising Practice – one of the most successful examples of business self-regulation ever developed.

The Commission on Marketing and Advertising is composed of policy experts from ICC member companies from the marketing and advertising industry, including legal advisors from industrial and commercial enterprises and lawyers in private practice, representing a wide range of national backgrounds and business representative organizations.

ICC’s Commission on Marketing and Advertising works closely with international nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations involved in marketing and advertising policy-making, such as the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA), the International Advertising Association (IAA) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) through its Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC).

Projects for 2011

• Update the Consolidated ICC Code to cover rapidly evolving techniques and maintain its relevance as the international benchmark for self-regulation in marketing communications.
• Develop and implement a comprehensive communication strategy to promote awareness, acceptance and use of the revised Code by practitioners, policymakers and educators.
• Develop a framework to provide enforceable global standards for digital media marketing.
• Draft an issues paper on interest-based (behavioral) advertising to provide input for on-going policy discussions at FTC, OECD, EU and others.
• Promote greater awareness and use of other ICC Codes and frameworks, in particular the Framework on responsible environmental marketing communications. 
• Support the Business Action for Responsible Marketing and Advertising (BARMA) initiative and distribution and promotion of the ICC/INSEAD educational module.