‘We don’t ban ads’ says AANA CEO with Environmental Claims review underway
Protecting and promoting the AANA’s self-regulatory system is a high priority for CEO Josh Faulks this year, and within that, is making sure its Environmental Claims Code is up to global standards.
At the time of his appointment, Faulks signalled that the Environmental Claims Code would be one of two codes that would be looked at first, and he told the Mumbrellacast this week this comes alongside a shift in community expectation around the issue.
The AANA’s new CEO, Josh Faulks
“We can see that shift in community expectation, and there’s a lot of work being done overseas on the development of standards.
Faulks said standards are being improved globally around “the kind of claims organisations are making across the world when it comes to environmental and sustainability issues”.
Parts of the industry have campaigned for bans on fossil fuel advertising in recent years, with the conversation becoming more prominent thanks to reports such as the annual F-List, with companies like Chevron and Glencore called out over advertising and partnerships.
“It’s got a broad impact across multiple industries and sectors,” he added on the Code’s review. “It really is about responsible advertising and making sure that advertisers are seen to be doing the right thing, and that’s part of the self-regulatory system.”
During the interview, Faulks emphasised the importance of the AANA’s self-regulatory system, and why his appointment and experience across public sector, media and consultancies work towards strengthening it.
The alternative, he said, is “more regulation, tighter restrictions, less advertising, and importantly, less trust in advertising and advertisers”.
Chevron was called out over its sponsorship of Australia day recently
The AANA is bringing together a sustainability council as well as key thought leaders to help shape the standards of the code.
But would the AANA consider supporting any of the bills or investigations put forward to ban fossil fuel advertising as has been seen in NSW, City of Sydney and Yarra Council?
“We don’t do bans on ads,” responded Faulks. “That’s something that the government can do, if they’re going to do bans on ads.”
“And I don’t want to preempt the outcome of the review. but if you look at the examples around the world, that’s not the kind of outcomes from when they set the standards in what they’re doing, saying ‘We’re going to ban fossil fuel advertising’.”
“But we don’t ban advertising and we don’t enforce that. That’s something that the government needs to do.”
“Our focus here is making sure we meet the community expectations and make sure that our advertisers and members know what to do when it comes to making environmental claims.”
“Because if they’re doing the right thing, we should be creating a system that allows them to communicate that effectively with their stakeholders and their customers. So that’s part of our objective there.”
Listen to the full interview below.
Got a tip?
Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
Linkedin
The toothless tiger gnashes its gums in another verbose evasion of responsibility.
User ID not verified.
Have your say