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 and brands on behalf of the entire industry, acting as the connection between industry professionals and the politicians and policy-makers.

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The Advertising Association focuses on major industry and policy areas that have huge ramifications on UK advertising. This section contains our work around Brexit, HFSS and gambling advertising, data and e-privacy, trust, the digital charter and our Industrial Strategy campaigns.

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 50 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.

Policies and Standards

/ February 4th 2019
Data and E-Privacy

Policies & Standards

Data protection compliance is also governed by a number of industry codes which dictate the standards that their members must adhere to beyond all legal requirements.

Advertising Industry Self-Regulatory Codes

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the self-regulatory body for the advertising industry. The codes which the ASA applies are written by the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) and breach of these can result in sanctions and referral to Ofcom and Trading Standards.

Further Industry Codes

A number of our member associations also have codes which set standards for their members’ behaviour, including the processing and handling of data.

Data and Marketing Association Code – The DMA is the trade body representing UK marketers. All members and their business partners must adhere to the five principles outlined in the code.

Market Research Society Code of Conduct – The MRS is the UK professional body for research, insight and analytics. The Code of Conduct is a self-regulatory code for all members, company partners and those retained by them. It was revised in October 2019 to encompass the requirements of the DPA 2018.

IAB: Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF)

The TCF is a framework aiming to help all parties in the digital advertising supply chain to meet the transparency and user-consent requirements of the GDPR and e-Privacy Directive. It standardises the process of obtaining internet users’ consent in compliance with the regulations for data processing and gives the advertising and publishing industries a common language with which to communicate this consent for the delivery of relevant online advertising and content.

The TCF consists of open-source technical specifications and policies and is continually evolving based on consultation and feedback from users and stakeholders.

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