By Princewill Ekwujuru

In order to sanitise advertising practice, the Advertising Standards Panel (ASP), a sectorial body in the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) said it will be dragging the Managing Director of an advertising agency and four media executives to the Advertising Practitioners Investigating Panel (APIP) for breaching the Nigerian Code of Advertising Practice and Sales Promotion 2010 and Nigerian Advertising Laws of the Federation 2004, as offenders meet panel June 21, 2011.

The indicted advertising practitioners in their official capacities authorised the exposure of unapproved advertisements, thereby breaching the Nigerian Code of Advertising Practice and Sales Promotion and the Nigerian Advertising Laws, Rules and Regulations.

The Advertising Standards Panel is a Statutory Committee of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) responsible for ensuring that advertisements conform to the prevailing laws of the Federation as well as the Code of advertising practice.

The mandate of the ASP is to ensure that only decent, honest and truthful advertisements are exposed in the media thereby protecting the interests of the consumers.

The ASP’s decision to wield the big hammer on the practitioners follows a sensitization of industry stakeholders to further create awareness on the Acts and Ethics governing the practice of advertising in Nigeria and their persistent violations of the Code of Advertising Practice and the oath of practice they swore to while joining the professional body.

According to the Oath of Practice, “advertising practitioners shall not produce or expose, or be involved in the production or exposure of any advertisement that is likely to bring advertising into contempt or ridicule, or reduce public confidence in the profession.”