Tributes paid to celebrate the life and career of former AA Director General Andrew Brown

The Advertising Association would like to pay tribute to its former Director General, Andrew Brown, who has recently passed away.  

After an illustrious career spanning 28 years working for advertising agency, JWT, where he was appointed Board Director in 1982. Andrew joined the AA in 1993 where he led the Association for over a decade until 2006.  

During his tenure at the Advertising Association, he played a major role in defending advertising freedoms.  At that time, there were increasing challenges from the EU to ban tobacco advertising and growing debates about restrictions to alcohol and HFSS advertising.  Andrew’s clear-sightedness and intellectual rigour put him at the centre of these debates in which he always held his own with great aplomb and charm. 

However, perhaps his most notable achievement was to build the ASA ‘one stop shop’ for all advertising. Taking the opportunity presented by the 2002 Communications Bill, he set up an AA industry Taskforce to make the case to the Government and the newly formed Ofcom to bring broadcast advertising into the ASA. Months later, following detailed negotiations with all parties, including with the publishers who were wary of regulatory creep, agreement was reached and the one-stop shop was launched. 

As someone who was wholeheartedly committed to strong and effective advertising regulation, Andrew also chaired the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) from 1999-2011 as well as the new Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) from 2004.  

Andrew was acutely aware of the substantial influence of EU policies over the UK advertising industry at that time and played a pivotal role in promoting the case for EU-wide advertising self-regulation.  Now, EASA and its sister body, ICAS, are well-established, bringing together self-regulatory bodies from across the world providing leadership, insights and support to national self-regulatory bodies and recognised by EU and other regulatory authorities for their expertise. 

Andrew’s influence and far-sightedness will be sorely missed by many.  

Stephen Woodford, CEO, Advertising Association said: “Andrew contributed a huge amount to the advertising industry, both in his 13 years at the helm of the Advertising Association and during his time as Chair of CAP and BCAP. It was such a pleasure to see him recently at an AA event and we are all shocked and saddened by his passing. We all owe him our gratitude for all the valuable work he did to improve our industry.” 

Photos of Andrew attending the ASA’s 60th anniversary event in January earlier this year can be found below. 

Tributes may be sent via tributes@adassoc.org.uk