Advertising isn’t passion, but profession – Fadolapo
By Felicia Nwosu
Dr. Lekan Fadolapo, Director General of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), has admonished practitioners in the advertising space to operate within the laws stipulated by the regulatory body, while stating that advertising is not a passion but a professional practice guided by codes of conduct and ethical standards.
His admonition came on the heels of recent reforms introduced to restore sanity and global best practices in Nigeria’s advertising space, especially digital advertising which includes social media.
Stating this in an exclusive interview with MARKETING EDGE on TV, the DG underscored some of the milestone achievements made so far since his assumption of office two years ago.
The ARCON helmsman noted that, for Nigerian advertising to remain relevant in the dynamic global marketplace, the conduct of its business must align with its core values in terms of rules and regulations. He, therefore, emphasised that contemporary advertising practice demands professionalism, passion and excellence for global competitiveness.
“Advertising in Nigeria is not a passion, it is a profession. And because it is a profession, it is guided by rules and regulations. There was a resolution by the House of Assembly sometime last year, that ARCON should go after the online advertisers because of the level of shenanigans that are happening there. Unfortunately, all those adverts that are forbidden to be exposed on the traditional media always find their ways into the digital media.
“We are still having discussions with those who responded to our invitation for a dialogue, but for those who did not show up, we have already dragged them to court. We just decided not to hit up the polity; but the case has come up like twice in the court and we are ensuring that we push this to a logical conclusion,” he said.
Dr. Fadolapo reaffirmed how the reforms have proven to be a strong catalyst in redefining the entire integrated marketing communications practice with their impact and implementation.
“We have done a series of reforms; the major one is the review/repeal of the ARCON Act and the enactment of the ARCON law, and we have reviewed the code of practice. We have reviewed the vetting procedure and guideline and issued a statement on the issue of local content, the Advertising Industry Standards of Practice (AISOP), terms of engagement, the contractual engagement between agency media and the clients. All these things have been done in the last few years,” he stated.
“The reforms have impacted the industry positively, especially the macro economy, for example, the policy of local content. Now, we are creating more jobs in the macro-economy. The target is that we want to develop and maintain the advertising practice. Clients are coming to terms with terms of advertising payment. Agency businesses are no longer what they used to be again. Previously business transactions were done at an informal level based on relationships and more like a referral business,” he revealed.
Stating that the Council is on a historic journey for stellar achievements, Fadolapo said: “We have a lot of things that we want to do, but first of all, we must audit the industry. We have to interrogate the body of knowledge called advertising. There are so many things. On one hand, we want to attract talents, on another hand, we want to grow the industry. We need to ensure that we make it attractive for investors. So, there are different levels and segments in this whole discussion and we cannot just throw everything into the system at the same time because it is going to cause a serious disruption.”
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