The Establishment of APCON
The decree establishing APCON, No. 55 of 1988 was later amended as
Act 93 of 1992. With it, a legal framework was put in place for the
management of the dynamic and influential industry that must be part of
social agents committed to societal growth and development. That is a
sketchy picture of society’s expectation from advertising. Advertising is
both an arm of the communication process and a communication process
in itself. Following its years of influence on the society and interactive
relationship that often turned controversial, a definite and resolute
understanding emerged between man and communication; and that isits agents must be held in trust for the society.
This metamorphosed into the concept of social responsibility. It simply
insists that as those organs pursue their goals, including that of profit
making, it must not be at the expense of the society; rather the society,
particularly the clients, customers, consumers, publics and stakeholders
should be made to benefit from its gains, through their rational,
reasonable and responsible activities. However, unfortunately, not all
arms of communication are expected to willingly submit to such tenets.
This further underscores the need for a regulatory authority whose duty
will be to ensure that rules are obeyed to the mutual interests of all the
parties involved in the obviously a social contract,
Before the creation of APCON, a number of organisations and
associations existed, representing most of the sectors of the advertising
industry. With their evolved rules and regulations, they guided the
activities of the practitioners in every sector. At the same time, they
individually and collectively pursued the goal of professionalising the
industry. Most vigorous in this crusade was the then Association of
Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria (AAPN), now Association of
Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN).
To be part of the vanguard for nurturing the society, advertising must
strictly conform to certain norms. Ozoh (1998: 196) is in support of this
when he asserts that one of such areas is being accountable to the people. According to him, “the greatest manifestation of the
accountability is the professional ethic that every advertisement shall be
honest, legal, decent and truthful”; and there must be an existing policy
framework with which to engender its compliance. APCON, therefore,
was created to do just that.
Anyacho (2007:254) alludes to this when he contends that there must be
means of ensuring that “the remedy chosen to avert, or redress market
failures is the best that can be designed”. Such failure arises when
advertising messages become “misleading, deceptive or offensive”;
hence, regulation is imperative, citing derivable benefits of regulation to
include- maintaining consumer confidence in advertising, facilitating
consumer protection, encouraging brand competition; “build goodwill
and respect for the profession; promote advertising practitioners as core
professionals”. This is done through the application of measures that
may be statutory, self-regulatory or both.
Already, there are some existing mass media laws which also relate to
advertising. Nwosu and Nkamnebe (2006:180) note that practitioners in
both industries take cognizance of them as part of the measures to
ensure acceptable advertising practices. To them, these include
defamation (libel and slander), copyright infringement, contempt and
privacy. These are in addition to the moral philosophy or ethics
practitioners should voluntarily subscribe to as means of self-regulation.
To robustly pursue its statutory obligations, APCON, besides the law
establishing it, went on to formulate a code of ethics to guide, control
and regulate the practice of advertising in the country. In the opinion of
Ozoh (1998:195), this is in furtherance of the dictates of Decree No. 55
of 1988, which enjoined the agency to “regulate and control the practice
of advertising in all its aspects and ramifications”, and other related
existing laws. Therefore, in pursuance of its statutory responsibilities,
APCON has sufficient weapons at his disposal. There are, as Anyacho
(2007:255) points out:
• Advertising Practitioners Regulation, Etc Act 55 of 1988 as
Amended in Act 93 of 1992.
• Code of Advertising Ethics, Act 1993.
• Banks and other Financial Institutions Act 1991, Section 40.
• Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria (Promulgation) Act
1999 (LFN) Cap.63, Fourth Schedule, Part 1.
• Federal Highways Act 1990, LFN, Cap.Section1 (5)(d) Section
27(1)(d), Section 28 (4).
• Consumer Protection Act, No. 66 of 1992.
• Federal Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1990
• National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control
(NAFDAC) (a) Food Production (Advertisement) Regulations
1996 and (b) Cosmetic and Medical Devices (Advertisement)
Regulations, 1996.
• Copyright Act, 1990, etc
• The Land Use Act, 1990 (LFN).
• Tobacco Smoking (Control) Act, 1990
• Trespass
• Nuisance
• Public Criminal Offence, Ref. Penal Code, Section 192 and 194,
Criminal Code, Section 234.
• Private Nuisance
• Negligence
• A Proclamation on Registration to Practice Advertising in
Nigeria, Public Notice No. 3 of 1997.
• Advertising Practitioners Disciplinary Committee Rules,
Government Notice No. 42 0f 1999
• Decisions on the Advertising of Tobacco Products and Alcoholic
Beverages.
All these statutes, laws, rules and regulations form bulk of the
instruments at the beck and call of APCON for the discharge of its
functions. However, as it is, the agency can hardly go it alone. As a
matter of necessity, APCON needs constant collaboration with related
agencies in order to operate smoothly. This is unavoidably so even as
some areas of overlaps can be noticed in the functions of APCON and
those of some other regulatory agencies, for instance NAFDAC,
Standards Organisation of Nigeria, NDLEA, Consumer Protection
Agency, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and National
Communications Commission (NCC).
3.1 Strengths from the Supporting Sectors
To achieve its assigned responsibilities, APCON requires a lot of
support. The enormity of its tasks, the vastness of the country, the
sensitivity of the profession and the dearth of expertise, all combined to
heighten the challenges before the agency. However, APCON is
surrounded by able and professional hands whose efforts and support
have made the agency to see the light of the day, in the first instance.
Among them are the professional sectoral bodies, which include the
following.
1. Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN)
2. Advertising Association of Nigeria (ADVAN)
3. Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN)
4. Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN)
5. Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON).
6. Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria
(MIPAN).
7. Independent Television Producers Association of Nigeria
(ITPAN
Apart from subjecting themselves, members and corporate institutions to
the dictates of advertising regulation and control as stipulated by
APCON, these organisations additionally subject themselves to more
self-regulatory measures. Each has its own code of ethics, and other
rules and regulations, to ensure that the members practice according to
the demands of the profession. What a thorough arrangement.
In addition, the regulating body itself is so structured to give the
subsisting components needed leverages with which to play supportive
and complementary roles to the attainment of the corporate objectives.
In this direction, there are the following structures.
a) Advertising Practitioners Investigating Panel (APIP)
b) Advertising Standards Panels (ASP)
c) Advertising practitioners disciplinary committee
d) Membership and privileges committee
e) Education and Training Committee
f) Administration and finance committee
The secretariat has this structural organisation to complement and assist
the council; the departments are listed below.
• Office of the registrar
• Research, planning and statistics
• Administration and finance
• Registration and career matters
• Regulation, monitoring and enforcement.
All these work together towards the achievement of the mandates of
APCON. To further assist it administratively and in its rules
enforcement, APCON has established some zonal offices. These are at
Abuja, Kano, Owerri, Enugu, Kaduna, Jos and Port-Harcourt.
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