2019 elections: APCON urges agencies to play by the rules
As the 2019 elections approaches, and the nation draws closer to another potentially heated political campaign season, advertising agencies have urged to play by the rules when creating campaign materials for their clients.
The warning was handed down to advertising practitioners by the Acting Registrar of Advertising Practitioners Council Of Nigeria (APCON), Mrs. Ijedi Iyoha, who was a guest at the recently concluded Annual General Meeting of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN). She insisted that all political campaign materials must be submitted to APCON for vetting in line with the APCON laws.
She also admonished that campaign materials should be focused on the messages and ideals of the candidates and parties instead of promoting bitterness and hate speeches. Mrs. Iyoha added that that the stability and peaceful democratic development of the country must not be subsumed under the personal ambitions of politicians or the mercantile interest of media owners.
Her admonitions came on the heels of a similar plea by communication stakeholders in Lagos, under the aegis of Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria (ACSPN), who recently called on Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) practitioners, Political parties and other stakeholders to ensure that election campaign messages are not about hate speech but issue based.
The organisation made the plea during the launch of a research it carried out to study the level of negativities in the 2015 elections. According to the report, two of the dominating political parties, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC), were responsible for 67% of the negative tone and hate speeches during the 2015 elections.
Speaking on behalf of the group during the public presentation of the report recently in Lagos, President of ACSPN, Professor Lai Oso, urged stakeholders like Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Political parties, Advertising Practitioners Council Of Nigeria (APCON), Media, and IMC practitioners to strictly adhere to election laws in order to avoid an occurrence of the 2015 experience.
Providing an insight into the regulations require, he stated that political advertisements should deal with issues and avoid negative reference to political opponents, other than criticism of their policies.
The regulation also required avoiding the use of foul or abusive language as well as false, distorted or unsubstantiated claims or misrepresentations of facts, besides not exploiting or inciting ethnic, religious or other sectional interests.
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