Business Action for Responsible Marketing and Advertising (BARMA)
What is BARMA?
Business Action for Responsible Marketing and Advertising (BARMA) is an ICC-led initiative to build on its long standing history of bringing together key industry stakeholders – advertisers, agencies, and media – to develop self-regulatory codes, most notably the Consolidated ICC Code for Advertising and Marketing Communications Practice, that set the bar for responsible marketing practice globally.
Members felt a special initiative such as BARMA was necessary to invest in promoting greater application of ICC’s international codes for advertising and marketing practice and to support self-regulation in markets where it is underdeveloped or at risk. Why is BARMA Necessary?
There is increased pressure on business to improve the understanding and effectiveness of self-regulation in advertising or risk having its licence to market goods and services locally and abroad constrained. Certain sectors (alcohol, pharmaceuticals, etc.) have experienced challenges and restrictions earlier than others, but these pressures are becoming more and more widespread, affecting food and beverage manufacturers, and more recently the automobile industry. Issues around sustainability claims, advertising to children, behavioural marketing and privacy raise the types of consumer protection fears that engage activists and draw the attention of legislators. These often lead to well-intentioned but ill-conceived policy choices. It is imperative that global business take steps to bolster self-regulation, demonstrating its effectiveness and the advantages it has over other options.
Objectives
- Educate current and future practitioners on the importance of compliance with the Code and the role of effective self-regulation in building consumer confidence, maintaining corporate reputation and preserving business’ license to market its products and services
- Increase public and political awareness of self-regulation in marketing and its advantages
- Serve as a catalyst for further development of self-regulation in key international markets
Global events resulted in BARMA pursuing these objectives in two phases as described below.
Phase 1 – Pooling international cases to create a teaching tool to cover core universal principles
ICC partnered with international business school INSEAD to develop an educational module for use in university and business school courses to educate the next generation of marketers on the ethical responsibilities of the profession and the role of self-regulation in preserving business’ license to advertise its products and services. Thanks to support and in-kind contributions by the BARMA Steering Committee formed to oversee this phase, the ICC/INSEAD module is complete.
Phase 2 – Advocacy and training efforts in new and vulnerable markets
Under the leadership of the ICC International Secretariat and with the support of BARMA patrons, Phase 2 will focus on enabling the use of educational module; its adaptation into an online training course for practitioners; launching and promoting the revised version of the Consolidated ICC Code, including setting up a Global Codes Centre with the Code and related tools as well as links to local translations and national self-regulatory organizations which are implementing the principles. These elements will form the toolkit of resources to support our advocacy efforts and training sessions in key markets, including China, Mexico, and Brazil.
For more information please click here to see the BARMA brochure. For more information on how to become a patron of BARMA, please email the International Secretariat by clicking here.
|