The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) was reorganised to create the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON). To reflect its expanded mandate, the council recently unveiled a new statute known as the ARCON law at a news conference.
As part of its new purpose to carry out supervision duties across the advertising ecosystem, Director-General of ARCON, Olalekan Fadolapo, stated that the industry’s high level of unethical advertising made a restructure imperative.
According to him, the act should have the only authority to address, manage, oversee, and assure adherence by individuals and organisations with regard to matters connected to advertising, marketing communication, and related matters in Nigeria, whether of a general or specialised character.
Fadolapo said, “What we are trying to say is that we have the remit to control the advertising space. Recently, there was a judgment by the High Court which says that only APCON should regulate the advertising space. There is specialisation, there is a division of labour.”
This act is saying that notwithstanding the provision in any other Act because we know other Acts that give the power to regulate advertising, but their remit is limited to their industry. This gives us a broadened, omnibus power across the advertising space, across the industry, across marketing.”
According to him, the law was applicable to anyone who engaged in, regulated, sponsored, or benefited from the provision of advertising services or marketing communication services, as well as any organisations, corporations, bodies, or agencies of the federal government, states, or local governments.
The ARCON DG added that the terms “advertisement” and “advertising” were redefined under the new law to close any gaps left by the prior regulation.
