Buscombe moves advertising sector onto front foot

by Steve Barrett, Media Week 05-Feb-08

Outgoing media minister James Purnell played a big part in influencing the Government's volte-face on extending the regulation of advertising of foods that are high in fat, salt or sugar to a blanket ban, but the role industry lobbying played should not be underestimated either.

The industry, including Isba, the IPA and the media owner trade bodies, rounded up its chariots behind the Advertising Association - led since January last year by chief executive Baroness Peta Buscombe - and is finally starting to take on the opposing lobbying forces at their own game.

It proves the benefit of appointing someone such as Buscombe, who understands the political world and the way it works. The behind-closed-doors approach that the association typically followed had resulted in disappointment in December 2006, when Ofcom extended the regulation of HFSS advertising from under-11s to under-16s at the last minute.

In her previous life, Buscombe helped put the Communications Act through and had done lots of cross-party work in the House of Lords - creating many useful alliances along the way. She was also involved in the Gambling Act and the shadow education department.

As a former chairman of the Conservative Party, she wears her political colours on her sleeve - and she does expect David Cameron to be the next Prime Minister - but concerns about her being too closely aligned to one political party have proved unfounded. The House of Lords operates in a more "grown up" manner to the Commons and tends to concentrate on policy minutiae rather than petty political point scoring.

The association now has new media in its sights through its Digital Media Group led by Publicis' Dan O'Donoghue, with a view to getting the same buy-in to self-regulation that has proved the best policy in traditional media.

It is obviously far too early to be complacent and the forces of further draconian regulation remain menacingly close to advertising's door, but the progress over the past 12 months suggests it will be worth the members of the Advertising Association investing the further funds Buscombe is asking for to double the organisation's resources, which currently stretch to employing a slightly paltry-sounding 12 staff.

- Steve Barrett is editor of Media Week, steve.barrett@haymarket.com
www.mediaweek.co.uk/stevebarrettblog