The American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) are at loggerheads over guidelines and language regarding transparency in the advertising
business, according to the
Wall Street Journal. Both trade groups formed a joint task force last year to formulate best practices in areas such as media buying and planning. On Thursday the
4As released its own guidelines and said it was unable to reach agreement with the ANA.
The paper reported that the 4As said, in a release, that the ANA “sought to go beyond
developing guideline language into prescribing contract language; the 4As believes that should be left for discussion between individual agencies and clients and does not believe that is the role of
an industry trade association.” The issue of transparency came to a head last year after former Mediacom CEO Jon Mandel made claims at an ANA conference that media rebates and kickbacks are
widespread in the industry.
Read the whole story at Wall Street Journal »