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Part Seven Special Topics and Perspectives
Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
VII. Special Topics and
Perspectives
21. Regulation of
Advertising and Promotion
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
Exhibit 21-15 The Direct Selling Association has a Code of Ethics for companies engaged in direct selling
specific guidelines and standards member firms are expected to adhere to and abide by.
Exhibit 21-15 shows part of the Code of Ethics of the Direct Selling Association.
Marketing on the Internet
The rapid growth of the Internet as a marketing tool is creating a new area of concern
for regulators. Currently marketing on the Internet is subject to only limited government
regulation, and many consumer and industry groups are concerned that some
marketers will use the new medium to get around regulations and restrictions on
other promotional areas. Following a Federal Trade Commission hearing in 1996,
then chairman Robert Pitofsky issued a plea for voluntary industry codes rather than
FTC rules and regulations. 97 He argued that the FTC’s legal authority is limited to the
areas of unfair or deceptive advertising and promotional practices and that many
potential abuses of the Internet may not fall into these categories. Extending the
FTC’s legal authority would require congressional action. However, the results of the
FTC’s call for self-regulation of the Internet have been mixed. Two major areas of
concern with regard to marketing on the Internet are privacy issues and online marketing
to children.
With regard to privacy, several consumer and industry groups have proposed significant
restrictions in the way marketers use the World Wide Web to get information
from consumers, the types of information they can get, and what they do with this
information. 98 The restrictions that have been proposed include:
• Banning unsolicited e-mail that cannot be automatically screened out. The Direct
Marketing Association and the Interactive Services Association propose
requiring marketers who send unsolicited e-mail messages to use coding that will
allow mail systems to automatically remove such messages.