The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) has said it is monitoring the digital space effectively to ensure that advertising materials published there comply with the rules and regulations guiding the practice.
This was revealed by the Director General of the agency, Dr. Lekan Fadolapo, in Lagos, on Tuesday, during a press conference on this year’s National Advertising Conference (NAC), scheduled to be held in Abuja between November 11 and 13 this year.
Fadolapo, who was represented at the event by the Chief Regulatory Officer, Dr. Lemme Akande, stated that while the agency does not regulate the digital space, its primary focus remains on ensuring that digital advertisements get the nod from the Advertising Standards Panel (ASP), before being displayed.
According to him, the digital space includes entertainment, information and advertising, adding that the agency’s concern continues to be advertising content, which it regulates.
He maintained that contrary to claims in some quarters that the agency had not wielded the cudgel on erring online advertisers, the ARCON boss claimed that over the years, the agency had managed to get some of such offenders prosecuted.
“We have a monitoring team and when there are acts that violate the code, what we do is sanction. At the end of the day, they take them to the AOT (Advertising Offenses Tribunal) and we have taken some of these content creators there. Sometimes some of them may want to settle out of court. So it’s not that ARCON hasn’t been regulating the space. It’s just that we haven’t been making the noise that you wanted,” he said.
During the conference, Fadolapo stated that one of the organizers’ priorities is to increase the attendance figure from 500 people registered last year to more than 700 this year.
He added that the Conference theme: “Repositioning the marketing communications industry for the next frontier”, arose from the urgent need for repositioning in all practice sectors.
The Chairman of the Event Planning Committee, Mr. Tunji Adeyinka, said the annual conference had become a platform to hold important industry conversations, update industry standards, debate critical issues and meet and network.
He said one of the strategies adopted by the committee to ensure that the annual event does not become another ‘talk’ is to also make it a promotional platform, where the industry agenda is pushed.
Adeyinka explained that the theme of the conference aims to address some of the challenges that prevent critical advancements in the industry.
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