‘Set up advertising standards authority’ (18/5/09)

THE President of the Advertising Association of Ghana (AAG), Mr Reginald Laryea has appealed to the government to establish an advertising standards authority to monitor and regulate the activities of advertising agencies.
He said the membership of such an authority could include representatives of the Food and Drugs Board (FDB), Ghana Standards Board as well as district and municipal assembles to avoid the multiple and duplicate instructions and regulations.
At separate courtesy calls on the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Nii Armah Ashitey and the Minister for Information Mrs Zita Okaikoi at their offices last Thursday, Mr Laryea explained that the proposed authority would enhance the smooth operations of advertisers and enforce the ethics of advertisers for sanity to prevail.
Mr Laryea was accompanied by executive members of the association. The calls were to welcome the ministers into office, offer the association’s support to them and help the ministries to generate revenue for development.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister Mr Ashitey thanked the association for its support and challenged the members to take up the responsibility for ensuring that places where they mounted their billboards were kept clean to beautify the city.
He urged advertisers to remove the bill boards of political parties that had not been removed after the 2009 elections.
He welcomed the idea of standardisation of advertisements in the country since he believed it would guide advertisers in the discharge of their duties.
For her part the Minister for Information, Mrs Okaikoi, said standardisation of advertisements would enable advertising agencies and the media to operate under strict codes to ensure good contents of advertisements.