RÖK joins ICAS as new associate member

ICAS is delighted to announce that the Turkish Advertising Self-Regulatory Board, RÖK, has become a new associate member 

Brussels, 16 January 2022: The International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (ICAS) and its members warmly welcome Reklam Özdenetim Kurulu (RÖK), the Advertising Self-Regulatory Board of Turkey, as an associate member. 

Reklam Özdenetim Kurulu (RÖK), the Advertising Self-Regulatory Board, was founded in 1994 by the Turkish Advertising Self-Regulatory Platform, which is composed of the Advertisers Association of Turkey (RVD) and the Association of Advertising Agencies (RD), to make sure that advertisements in Turkey are legal, decent, honest and truthful.  Today, RÖK’s membership brings together advertisers, agencies as well as the media. 

RÖK enforces the Advertising and Marketing Communications Code of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Code). The Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) deals with consumer and competitor complaints and provides copy advice. The SRO also monitors ads and has started using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for its online monitoring to ensure better compliance of influencer ads. For their AI project, RÖK was awarded in 2022 a Special Mention by the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) in the context of the EASA Best Practice Awards. RÖK has been a member of EASA since it was set up in 1994.

RÖK now joins the 32 members that are part of ICAS, including 26 advertising self-regulatory bodies from across the world as well as other national, regional and international industry bodies committed to responsible advertising. 

Guy Parker, ICAS President and Chief Executive of the ASA, UK, stated:

We are honored to welcome RÖK to our global network. For almost 30 years RÖK has played an important role in Turkey in protecting consumers from unethical advertising and in ensuring a level playing field for businesses. It successfully developed its system in one of the world’s largest economies, and one that bridges Asia and Europe. RÖK’s expertise will be valuable for ICAS and we are excited to be working together with RÖK in addressing current and future global ad self-regulation challenges.

Ulya Duran, Coordinator of RÖK, stated:

We are very proud to become a member of the ICAS network. We believe that the continuous cooperation we have within EASA will also continue in ICAS. Sharing the national expertise with other networks in a very wide geography will ensure mutual benefits.  Together we are united for a better self-regulation around the globe. This will also strenghten the role of self-regulation in Turkey. We are very much excited to be working with ICAS and strongly believe that strenght comes from unity.