Who's Doing What

Ad Industry's CASIE Group Advances Internet Role for Commercial Speech
To surfers of today's commercially supported World Wide Web, an era of serious hostility to commercial speech on the Internet must seem as remote as computer punch cards.

But, less than three years ago, advertising representatives were told by senior officials of the Clinton Administration that advertising was "not significant" in its study of the National Information Infrastructure (NII), and, thus, no advertising executive would be appointed to the President's Advisory Committee on the NII.

Meanwhile, Wired magazine put on its cover the Pillsbury Doughboy with a headline declaring that the Internet would mean "the end of advertising," presumably because it would be unneeded in the new information age.

And, in a curious display of "netiquette," thousands of net users "flamed" an immigration attorney for using Internet messages to announce the availability of his services, thereby jamming his ability to receive incoming messages.

In the face of such ignorance and hostility, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) created a joint task force called CASIE -- the Coalition for Advertising Supported Information and Entertainment. As the accompanying display shows, the CASIE mission and goals are practical and social, but rooted in the First Amendment traditions of all significant American mass media.

From CASIE's Mission Statement:

Mission: Create an environment where consumers have the broadest possible array of high-quality media options at the lowest possible cost. To accomplish this, we believe that advertising revenue must be a key funding source for information and entertainment in the evolving world of media.

Key Areas of Focus

  1. Promote existing advertising-supported entertainment and information services.

  2. Encourage providers of new services to rely on advertising as a key funding source.

  3. Research and track consumer use and acceptance of new media services.

  4. Ensure the adoption of technical standards for hardware and software by industry and government that facilitate: (a) delivery of programming and advertising; and (b) simple consumer access.

  5. Be proactive and involved with federal and state legislation and regulation. Advocate and promote a minimalist approach to the legislation and regulation of telecommunications.
Thus, the CASIE representatives in Washington vigorously have reminded policymakers that political speech, free inquiry, quality entertainment, and commercial speech have been intertwined in the history of the American mass media from before the time of Ben Franklin's printing press, and that it would be foolish to ignore that tradition as new media evolve and are made subject to government regulation.

As media history evolves daily on today's World Wide Web, seemingly quaint threats to commercial speech like "flaming" have been replaced by others. Two appear particularly troublesome, not because they are direct attacks on commercial speech, but because they pose some of the thorniest public policy questions in a society that treasures free communication.

They are: (1) how to protect against sexual misconduct toward children; and (2) how to protect the privacy of all citizens.

The answer for many has been to urge the government to suppress speech content. As every free speech advocate knows, the urge to censor remains ever vigorous, and successful attempts to censor one type of speech content inevitably breed others.

Thus, CASIE supports efforts to challenge the censorship provisions of the Communications Decency Act. Meanwhile, CASIE has taken a high-profile role in government debates on Internet privacy at the Federal Trade Commission and elsewhere.

In that regard, CASIE announced a set of privacy self-regulation goals in 1996. The goals recognize that while computer and Internet technology enable more efficient target marketing, consumers have a right to know and to control much information about them that they consider private.

Inquiries about CASIE's privacy goals or other Washington activities should be directed to John Kamp, senior vice president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (202-331-7345), or Daniel C. Jaffe, executive vice president of the Association of National Advertisers (202-626-7800).