This week, something I first started writing about years ago in the trade press via my column in The Drum reaches an important moment in Parliament.
Trust and transparency in advertising and marketing have always been close to Entropy’s heart. So one thing that struck me years ago was how odd it was that, in an era of disinformation, election advertising had almost no rules in stark contrast to the many rules we as commercial marketers have to contend with.
I wrote a blog about how bonkers I thought that was. Rather than just ranting about it, I put forward some suggestions on what could be done about it.
That blog led to me setting up the independent, politically neutral, not-for-profit campaign Reform Political Advertising with fellow advertising industry collaborator Benedict Pringle. RPA is run by a small group of unpaid volunteers from the advertising and marketing industry.
What seems pretty amazing when I look back on it is how far it has come. From just an idea, the amendments we’ve now put forward for the Bill are supported by three key advertising trade bodies in the UK, ISBA, the IAB and IPA, and the three amendments have between 38 and 57 MPs supporting them. The Bill will be discussed in Parliament this week.
The amendments address three clear gaps to increase trust in election advertising through factual accuracy and transparency.
One would introduce a code of practice requiring factual claims in paid electoral advertising to be accurate, without regulating political opinion or debate. Another would create an independent, searchable database of electoral advertising. The third addresses deliberate AI and deepfake impersonation of political candidates.
We believe various MPs will also speak on the topic this week also.
We don’t know what the Government will do on Wednesday, and I don’t assume it will simply accept all the amendments. But whatever the outcome, the issue now feels mainstream around the issue of how we tackle disinformation in elections.
And the Bill heads next to the House of Lords. That gives us another major opportunity to progress these amendments. In fact, two of the three amendments reflect unanimous recommendations made by the House of Lords Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee in 2020 (that we gave evidence to). AI of course wasn’t a thing back then for the third.
So it feels appropriate, in a circular sort of way, to be writing a short blog on the topic to reflect on the progress and potential challenges ahead for what has seemed at some points like managing a start up rather than the execution of a campaign strategy.
Alex Tait
Founder, Entropy
P.S. Somewhat tantalisingly, the current UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, signed up to the RPA ad code that now forms part of these amendments when we tested it in the mayoral elections that year. So when you know the PM is sympatric to the issue how to you get cut through to get on the priority list of a very full agenda? I’d welcome your thoughts.
