The Advertising Association promotes the role and rights of responsible advertising and its value to people, society, businesses and the economy. We represent UK advertisers, agencies, media owners and tech companies on behalf of the entire industry, acting as the connection between industry professionals and the politicians and policy-makers.

A A A

The Advertising Association focuses on major industry and policy areas that have huge ramifications on UK advertising. This section contains our work around public health, gambling advertising, data and e-privacy, trust, the digital economy and more.

Credos is the advertising industry’s independent think tank. It produces research, evidence and reports into the impact and effectiveness of and public and political response to advertising on behalf of UK advertisers in order to enable the industry to make informed decisions.

Front Foot is our industry’s member network of over 90 businesses across UK advertising. It aims to promote the role of responsible advertising and its value to people, society and the economy through a coalition of senior leaders from advertisers, agencies and media owners.

We run a number of events throughout the year, from our annual LEAD summit to the Media Business Course and regular breakfast briefings for our members. We are also the official UK representative for the world’s biggest festival of creativity – Cannes Lions.

Reports of a review into planned HFSS advertising restrictions

/ September 14th 2022
Public Health

Following reports that the Government may be preparing to review their anti-obesity strategy, which includes the planned HFSS advertising restrictions, the Advertising Association has issued the following statement.

Sue Eustace, Director of Public Affairs, Advertising Association said:

“We all agree that addressing obesity requires a holistic, evidence-based approach.  By the Government’s own estimates, the planned TV watershed and full online ban for HFSS advertising would barely scratch the surface – only reducing calorie intake by 2-3 calories a day. Advertising bans are not the silver bullet to the nation’s obesity challenge because obesity levels vary considerably across the country and are worst in disadvantaged areas. Childhood obesity would be more effectively tackled with holistic programmes targeted at these areas.

In the meantime, the industry is currently facing great uncertainty around the timing and implementation of the advertising restrictions – making it difficult to plan future campaigns. Given the lack of strong evidence for the bans, we would ask the Government whether it is appropriate to go ahead with the new restrictions at all.”