ICAS unites with regional members and stakeholders to launch a Latin American ICAS Chapter and sign a Bogotá Declaration. 

At its inaugural Latin American meetings, that took place in Bogotá from October 23rd to 25th, the advertising standards bodies, or co called Self-Regulatory Organizations (SROs) of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, Spain, and the International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (ICAS) endorsed the Bogotá Declaration and launched a Latin American ICAS Chapter.

The Bogotá Declaration is a commitment to establish guidelines and principles that promote transparent, ethical, and socially responsible advertising practices across all industries in Latin America. It underscores the shared objective of the signatories to protect consumers’ interests, encourage fair competition in the marketplace, and construct robust self-regulatory frameworks that uphold the highest standards of advertising integrity.

Principles include the commitment to:

• foster and promote comprehensive, efficient and well-resourced advertising self-regulatory systems that bring together all the relevant actors of the advertising industry at national level;
• develop technological solutions to make advertising self-regulation more accessible, efficient and faster;
• support the industry in its efforts to develop advertising that addresses global issues such as sustainability, diversity, social inclusion, equity, and serves as a driver of positive change;
• consider, research, and implement joint solutions to emerging challenges in Latin America in the field of advertising self-regulation;
• and a commitment to collaborate across the region to ensure that the above commitments are all met.

Crucially, the Bogotá Declaration introduces the creation of a new ICAS Latin American Chapter. This chapter will function as a platform and gathering point for ICAS members and stakeholders in Latin America as well as the Spanish SRO, AUTOCONTROL, to exchange ideas and best practices and deliberate on global and regional issues. The platform will also facilitate collaborations and joint initiatives aimed at enhancing the capabilities and growth of advertising self-regulatory organizations in Latin America.

Guy Parker, President of ICAS, said: 

We are delighted that the ad standards bodies in Latin America have made meaningful commitments to strengthen the self-regulatory systems in their countries and that ICAS as a global platform can support this important initiative by creating a Latin American Chapter and meeting point for all regional stakeholders. Similar to the ICAS Charter adopted by all our members in 2021, the Bogotá Declaration sets out the goals for effective ad self-regulatory systems and we are delighted that it has also been signed by ad standards bodies that are not ICAS members, yet. This enhanced collaboration between all Latin American SROs, the Spanish SRO, AUTOCONTROL, and ICAS will lead to more meaningful discussions and more effective joint actions.

José Domingo Gómez Castallo, Director General of AUTOCONTROL, Spain, said:

I am very glad to have attended the ICAS meeting in Colombia along with my Latin American colleagues and to have contributed to setting up the Latin American Chapter of ICAS. 

We are all proud to have established this platform that, as the Bogotá Declaration says, is aimed at promoting efficient self-regulation that benefits consumers and creates fair competition. We believe that advertising self-regulation managed by independent SROs can be considered a good option in setting up high standards and practices in order for the industry to deliver more responsible advertising.

Juliana Albuquerque, Executive Vice-President of Conar, Brazil, added:

This meeting is a turning point to re-establish our regional cooperation, strengthen self-regulatory systems in Latin American countries and generate tools for responsible advertising. We have great common objectives: to contribute to truthful advertising of sustainable claims and better implementation of online advertising standards, and we will be able to achieve them more effectively thanks to this cooperation. We congratulate ICAS for the initiative and the launch of the Latin American Chapter of Self-Regulatory Organizations, as well as Autocontrol Spain, who generously offers us the highest references of effective self-regulation activities.

Download here the Bogotá Declaration