Enough is enough: Where are the advertising standards for political campaigns?
DPR&Co co-founder and agency principal Phil Huzzard explains why political advertising insults our intelligence and how it could be changed for the better.
Truth in advertising is mandated by law in Australia. It’s rarely enforced except under free-to-air TV industry self-regulation (through Free TV Australia, which is surprisingly assiduous in fact checking TV ads) and by the ACCC (where a complaint is usually required to instigate action).
But there’s one category of advertising that is not required to be truthful. Political advertising.
The rationale for this exemption, blithely accepted by media and a cynical electorate, is that political advertising needs to be able to promote concepts and policy ideas that are not yet fully formed.
