Television Station Standards for Acceptable Advertising

Abstract

Information on the procedures, motives, and nature of standards for television commercial acceptance—descriptions of the guidelines and day‐to‐day concerns—were requested from advertising‐supported stations operating in the United States. This generated a detailed descriptive profile of station concerns. The consumer protection utility of this form of self‐regulation is discussed.

Self-Regulation and Television Advertising

“…Former President Ronald Reagan's appointee to chair of the FTC observed that self-regulation, and especially the clearance process, is a strong and practicable substitute for government involvement in advertising regulation (Oliver 1988). However, in terms of stations' priorities or focus, the preliminary evidence is that this might not be a valid expectation Rotfeld et al 1990). …”

An Exploratory Study of Television Advertising Practices: Do Profitability and Organization Size Affect Clearance Formality?

“…However, sales and traffic are always involved in clearance, because these two departments are primarily responsible for reviewing ad content. Sales personnel negotiate changes in ad content with clients (Rotfeld, Abernethy & Parsons 1990), and the traffic manager (who is supervised by the sales manager) must always be told whether to schedule an ad for broadcast (McCavitt & Pringle 1986). Ultimately, the general manager decides whether to accept an advertisement for broadcast.…”

“…This study examines local station ad clearance. It complements contemporary ad clearance research (Rotfeld, Abernethy & Butler 1990;Rotfeld, Abernethy & Parsons 1990;Rotfeld, Parsons, Abernethy & Pavlik 1990) by examining different clearance measures and polling sales managers rather than station managers. The study also attempts to explain findings using organizational theory and broadcast policy research.…”

“…Advertising may represent one part of the image a station presents to viewers to keep them watching. Broadcast managers believe it is important to maintain an overall vehicle content that produces the largest audience to sell to advertisers (Rotfeld 1990). They consider how well the style of a commercial matches the surrounding program.…”

“…They consider how well the style of a commercial matches the surrounding program. Managers also find it important to avoid ads which mislead or offend viewers, because such ads might potentially cause a station to lose loyal viewers (Rotfeld, Parsons, Abernethy & Pavlik 1990).…”