What is meant by the monitoring of advertisements?
Review of all the advertisements of a product category or media type published in a given pe-riod with respect to whether the advertisements are in compliance with the requirements of the Code of Advertising Ethics.
Why need advertisements to be reviewed also in this way?
ÖRT conducts a post-review of advertisements also in Hungary in accordance with the international commitment undertaken for the EU at the Advertising Roundtable.
- We verify whether the advertisers have observed the previous resolution of the com-mittee of advertising ethics.
- We obtain information about the trends present in the particular field and initiate the amendment of the Code if necessary.
- All advertisers in the field may be certain that eventual problems will be discovered not only upon the receipt of complaints.
- We collect data and information about how far the requirements of the Code are ob-served in the particular field.
Who decides what to review?
The fields to be reviewed have been set in the annual work schedule of ÖRT. Additionally the advertisements are reviewed also in the case of issues raised in connection with the adver-tisement of particular branches of industry and product categories. We participate also in in-ternational programs as a member of the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) organisation.
How are advertisements obtained?
As a subscriber to the Kantar Media AdexNet program Hungarian advertisements can be ac-cessed through the internet. And in the scope of the international program we review adver-tisements included in the database of an international media monitoring company.
How is monitoring conducted?
All collected advertisements are reviewed by the secretary general, the legal practitioner of ÖRT and a committee of experts decides in respect of questionably advertisements considered to be problematic whether these infringe the Code of Advertising Ethics.
What is done with monitoring results?
Information obtained in international programs are forwarded to the international organisation of producers of the branch of industry concerned through EASA. The European directors of the companies concerned review the national data and present these to the EU.
And in Hungary we share the experiences and results with those concerned in the scope of workshops. In the case of problems those concerned are requested to correct the erroneous elements. And repeated monitoring provides scope for renewed reviews. The workshops are held under the Chetham House Rule (Participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s) nor that of any other participant may be revealed).
Are such post-reviews sensible?
Monitoring supplements the other two activities of self-regulation: requests for preliminary opinions and the handling of complaints. The advertising industry wishes to convince the con-sumers that the publication of ethical advertisements and the suppression of unethical adver-tisements is in common interest. This is why this form of monitoring is undertaken by it.
