Improving the Effectiveness of Advertising Self-Regulatory Schemes: Empowering the Public

Abstract

As the most visible element of the marketing communications mix, advertising has had its critics and, given the choice, developed countries usually select a selfregulatory approach to deal with unacceptable advertising. The recent breakdown of one of the world's longest established advertising self-regulatory programs in Australia has reopened the debate that has taken place in the leading academic and business journals concerned with enhancing understanding of such regulatory systems. This paper focuses on the role of public awareness in assisting the industry and regulators concerned with advertising self-regulation to eliminate undesirable features of such systems in the future. The empirical work succeeds in making both a practical and theoretical contribution to this important area.