The House of Lords Communications Committee today publishes its
report UK advertising in a digital age.
The Committee finds that the UK’s advertising
industry is a success story: the UK is a global hub for
advertising which added £120 billion to the UK’s economy and
supported over 1 million jobs in 2016. Advertising is a creative
endeavour that contributes to the UK’s culture and society.
However, the industry is in a state of flux.
There has been an explosion of businesses using
technologies which make money from delivering advertising online,
which often rely on processing personal data of consumers. The
Committee heard evidence that even individuals within the
industry do not have a comprehensive understanding of how
business models such as these work, making the digital
advertising industry dysfunctional and
opaque.
The Committee recommend that the
industry should take greater steps to self-regulate through
independent bodies such as the Joint Industry Committee for Web
Standards. The Competition and Markets Authority should undertake
a market study of the digital advertising market to ensure that
it is working fairly for businesses and consumers. The Government
should review whether competition law is appropriate for the 21st
century digital economy.
The Committee heard that as result of the lack
of transparency advertising on the internet may be displayed next
to inappropriate or illegal content and, according to one
estimate, over $16 billion spent on digital advertising was
stolen through fraud in 2017. Digital advertising does not adhere
to the usual high standards of print and TV, and consumers are
bombarded by ‘clickbait’. This threatens to
undermine the trust which the advertising industry relies
on.
The UK is a global centre for advertising that
relies on an international workforce and its ability to attract
and retain international workers is key to its global success.
These workers provide the cultural, creative, digital and
languages skills which enable the UK to win advertising accounts
from multi-national companies for global campaigns. Extending the
tiered visa system, which is slow, expensive and restrictive, to
EU nationals will create an unmanageable barrier to finding and
hiring the talent that the advertising industry
needs.
The Committee therefore recommends that
the Government should seek to negotiate reciprocal agreements
with other countries under which international workers with a job
offer in the advertising industry will have the right to work in
the UK. The Government should also introduce a creative
industries’ freelancer visa.
Individuals from all communities and
backgrounds, regardless of ethnicity, gender, class and ability,
should have access to employment in the advertising
industry. The industry should discontinue informal
working and recruitment practices, such as unpaid internships,
which present a barrier to groups from lower socioeconomic
groups. The Government should clarify the law on unpaid
internships. This will allow the advertising industry to
access a larger talent pool which better reflects the
advertisers’ audiences.
Chairman of the Committee, ,
said:
“Advertising contributes to culture, society
and fuels the economy by helping businesses to grow and compete
against one another. It is therefore essential that UK
advertising continues to
thrive and maintain
its international reputation. But the industry is facing immense
changes which threaten to undermine its
success.
“Digital advertising has quickly become the
most significant form of advertising by spending. But the market
for delivering digital advertising to consumers is notoriously
‘murky’: businesses which buy advertising services don’t know how
their money is being spent, whether their advertising is being
displayed next to content which is obscene or which supports
terrorism, or whether their ads are being viewed by a human being
at all.
“The consumer’s experience is also poor as they
may be bombarded with clickbait, or their personal data may be
exploited without their knowledge. To restore the public’s trust
in advertising as a whole, the industry must commit to adhering
to proper standards.
“The UK’s global success relies on an
international workforce. These workers provide the cultural,
creative, digital and languages skills which enable the UK to win
advertising accounts from multi-national companies for global
campaigns. As the UK leaves the EU, the Government must develop
an immigration policy that works for advertising
businesses.”
