Advertising breaks loose

The ITC believes viewers can make up their own minds

Television advertising in the UK has long been bridled by rules to protect the public from runaway consumerism in the living room.

But as viewers can now access a multitude of channels at the click of a decoder switch, the advertising watchdog has decided it is time to lighten up.

The Independent Television Commission has called for submissions on lifting a raft of advertising bans.

Free speech is the buzzword behind many of the proposed changes, which could loosen the apron strings that have kept escort agencies, religious groups and private investigators off the small screen for decades.

Best possible taste

Many of the banned advertisers can proclaim their existence in print and on the internet, so why not on television, asks the commission's discussion paper.

It is legal to run an escort agency, yet it is illegal to advertise its services on television.

The commission proposes dropping this ban, so long as the commercials are in the best possible taste and screened after impressionable youngsters have gone to bed.

And the providers of pregnancy tests, banned in part because practitioners could offer advice on previously-illegal abortions, may be allowed to advertise their existence.

US tobacco companies imposed their own ad ban

But even if the rules are relaxed, advertisers in the UK will still be on a tighter rein than their counterparts in the United States, where rules and regulations are few and far between.

As of last year, pharmaceutical companies can bombard the American public with ads for prescription-only drugs, the small print bristling with the possible side effects.

The result? A multi-billion dollar advertising bonanza, filling doctors' surgeries with brand-conscious patients demanding the latest treatment for what ails them.

Cigarettes are not advertised on US television - yet this is a self-imposed ban agreed by tobacco companies in the 1960s, not a federal decision.

Fun and games

There are no hard and fast rules governing television advertising across Europe - each country makes its own decisions, within the bounds of taste and decency.

The Swedish Government takes up the presidency of the European Union in 2001, and intends to press for its strict controls on advertising aimed at children to be extended to the rest of Europe.

But the Swedes are in for a battle, with the toy industry and television chiefs vowing to fight the move.