Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-12-13-Speech-1-222"
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"en.20101213.21.1-222"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, why a report on advertising? Because advertising can be the best of things and also the worst of things.
It can be the worst of things if it is misleading, if it is intrusive, if it is deceptive, if it does not play the game, if ultimately, it does not deliver what the consumer expects of it, which is information. It can be the best of things because advertising is also an amazing tool for economic development. Advertising oils the wheels of the economy, and as some people have said, advertising, if it is well done, also gives the consumer a means of making comparisons and, in some ways, it stimulates competition.
Advertising is not, therefore, something new, so why a new text when there are texts in existence already? For several reasons. Firstly, because advertising nowadays is not what it used to be. Recently, I read in an American report, but things are fairly similar in Europe, that on 29 November last year, in one day, online trade accounted for a turnover of more than USD 1 billion. That is a considerable increase in online trade and online advertising tools. One of the justifications for this report is that texts regulating advertising are sometimes completely unsuitable for the tools that have emerged in recent years.
Advertising can be intrusive, and increasingly it is so; it invades private life. There is also something quite new in advertising, which is not covered by the texts. Advertising may be covert. Advertising may not declare itself. There is a famous example on Facebook, one of the social networks – a new tool that is not covered by the legislation – where groups of people report some alleged fault or other in a product. All that can literally destroy a brand within a few days or a few weeks.
It is clear, therefore, that yesterday’s advertising is not at all like today’s advertising, which uses tools that did not exist before. I am thinking here of behavioural advertising, of targeted advertising, and of reading your private emails. Does anyone here want or accept their private emails being read? Well, that is what happens today for the purposes of advertising.
Basically, ladies and gentlemen, I think that we have to think about some very simple values: respect for private life, protection of the most vulnerable people, because we know very well that children are among those most vulnerable people who receive so-called behavioural advertising, which means advertising that targets their habits. These children do not understand that this advertising is not just advertising that is sent to them by chance. It is advertising that targets their individual choices. An adult might understand this, but a child does not.
Well, new technology brings new challenges: considerable economic challenges. We see that basically, this is really a political debate. The matter has been resolved, according to some professionals who, above all, do not want the advertising world to be affected. It is also true that we hear some professionals explaining to us that, after all, consumers are warned by long and very detailed confidentiality policies on websites. In reality, we know that no one reads these long, incomprehensible confidentiality policies and when they are read, they are not understood, they are actually impossible to read. We see that, in the end, we keep coming back to the same issue. Advertising must be fair, it must respect other people and it must respect private life. Consumers must not be spied on and must not be targeted without their knowledge. Consumers, citizens, must be respected.
Mr President, and I shall finish here, we must therefore have two objectives. Firstly, advertising must be fair: more fair, more respectful, more effective, therefore, and more respectful of private life, but also citizens, that is, citizens who are consumers, must be more aware, not manipulated, better informed and more discriminating. That is the whole purpose of this report.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I hope that you will accept this report and will vote for it, in general terms, in this House."@en1
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