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Credos is an advertising think-tank established in early 2010 by the Advertising Association, as part of their mission to re-build public trust in advertising and maintain the freedom to advertise responsibly in the UK. It is funded by the advertising industry and overseen by an advisory board to assure the quality of its work. Credos' mission is to 'understand advertising': its role, how it works, how it is perceived and its value to UK society and the economy. [1]
Hamish Pringle, Director General at the IPA, stated that 'Credos is a big step forward for the industry and we're delighted to see Tim Lefroy's 'Front Foot' initiative delivering on its promise so soon, thanks to great support from key advertisers, media owners and agencies.’ [2]
Credos has been described as the ‘brainchild' [3] of Tim Lefroy, the Chief Executive of the Advertising Association. Tim has worked in marketing management at Cadbury plc and Gillette (brand), and was CEO of Young and Rubicam in the UK.
Karen Fraser is Credos’ Director, and her previous work has been featured by BBC2's Newsnight, BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, Radio 5 Live, The Economist, the New Statesman and the Financial Times. She also founded the Ethical Reputation Index (ERI) and won a place on Harvard Business Review's Breakthrough Ideas list for her work on ‘conflicted consumers’. Mark Choeke, writing for Marketing Week in December 2010, states that 'as industry champions go, these two are perfectly placed and sufficiently experienced to help rebuild trust and confidence in the work that marketers do.’ [4]
Credos is chaired by James Best, who is Chairman of the Committee of Advertising Practice, a non-Executive Director of social marketing agency ICE, and Vice Chair of the Deborah Hutton Campaign. He served as President of the European Association of Communications Agencies from 2003–2005, was Chairman of the UK Advertising Association from 1997 to 2002, and is a Fellow of the IPA.
Credos’ advisory board includes Will Hutton, the executive vice-chair of the Work Foundation; Nick Chater, professor of behavioural science at Warwick Business School; Andrew Walmsley, entrepreneur and founder of digital communications agency i-level; Chris Mundy, managing director of Clearcast; Fiona Wood, Central Office of Information board director and head of research, insight and engagement; Mandy Pooler, director for development at Kantar, the holding group for the research and consultancy businesses owned by WPP Group; and Rory Sutherland, vice-chairman of WPP's Ogilvy Group in the UK and also IPA president.
Credos’ first piece of marketing research, published in March 2011 and entitled ‘Advertising: What the UK really thinks’, [5] explored two themes: public perceptions of advertising, and the views of professionals thought to have most influence in shaping attitudes towards advertising. The research was carried out in response to data published by the Advertising Association, which showed a notable decline in public favourability towards advertising since the mid-1990s. [6] The findings were covered mainly in trade press, including Marketing Week, [7] Campaign, [8] and The Drum. [9]
Credos also contributed to the government-commissioned 'Bailey Review' on the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood, 'Letting Children be Children'. [10] The Review was led by CEO of the Mothers' Union Reg Bailey, and aimed to assess whether children in the UK are being pressured to grow up too quickly, as well as setting out some of the things that businesses and their regulators, as well as government, can do to minimise the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood. Credos commissioned Dr Barbie Clarke of Family, Kids and Youth [11] to conduct qualitative and quantitative research to explore parental concerns of childhood.
Credos held an event at the Mothers' Union - 'Credos Briefing: Bailey Review - Research, Outcomes and Impliations' - to present its findings, with Reg Bailey speaking about the Review. Writing for the Telegraph, Harry Wallop covered the event, reporting the problems with younger users activating Facebook accounts. Despite the over-13 age restriction, Karen Fraser described how 'in a series of focus groups earlier this month she had discovered that "80 per cent to 90 per cent" of those under 13 were signed up to Facebook.' As such, she added that 'if an 8-year-old pretends to be 13 to sign up, when they are actually 13 the site will allow advertising from gambling, alcohol and cosmetic surgery companies to be targeted at their page because Facebook will think they are 18.'. [12]
Credos has produced 10 publications to date, focusing on children, alcohol and youth marketing, MPs' attitudes to advertising, general public attitudes to advertising, and airbrushing and body confidence. Their forthcoming reports focus on the economic value of advertising to the economy and the future of advertising, among others.
An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally independent of the client; it may be an internal department or agency that provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services, or an outside firm. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies promotions for its clients, which may include sales as well.
WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It was the world's largest advertising company, as of 2019. WPP plc owns many companies, which include advertising, public relations, media, and market research networks such as AKQA, BCW, CMI Media Group, Essence Global, Finsbury, Grey, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Wavemaker, Wunderman Thompson, and VMLY&R. It is one of the "Big Four" agency companies, alongside Publicis, The Interpublic Group of Companies, and Omnicom Group. WPP has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is a conservative non-profit free market public policy think tank based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It advocates free market economic policies such as free markets, privatisation, deregulation of state-owned enterprises, trade liberalisation, deregulation of workplaces, abolition of the minimum wage, criticism of socialism, and repeal of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. It also rejects large parts of climate science.
Sir Martin Stuart Sorrell is a British businessman and the founder of WPP plc, the world's largest advertising and PR group, both by revenue and the number of staff. Upon being ousted in April 2018, Sorrell was the longest-serving chief executive of a FTSE 100 company.
Chris Ingram is a British businessman, entrepreneur and art collector with strong benevolent links to Woking.
J. Walter Thompson (JWT) was an advertisement holding company incorporated in 1896 by American advertising pioneer James Walter Thompson. The company was acquired in 1987 by multinational holding company WPP plc, and in November 2018, WPP merged J. Walter Thompson with fellow agency Wunderman to form Wunderman Thompson.
The Advertising Association (AA) is a trade association representing advertisers, agencies, media and research services in the UK advertising industry. Its stated aim is to promote the “…role, rights and responsibilities of advertising and its impact on individuals, the economy and society". Its Chief Executive is Stephen Woodford.
Sexualization is the emphasis of the sexual nature of a behavior or person. Sexualization is linked to sexual objectification, treating a person solely as an object of sexual desire. According to the American Psychological Association, sexualization occurs when "individuals are regarded as sex objects and evaluated in terms of their physical characteristics and sexiness." "In study after study, findings have indicated that women more often than men are portrayed in a sexual manner and are objectified. In addition, a narrow standard of physical beauty is heavily emphasized. These are the models of femininity presented for young girls to study and emulate."
Marketing ethics is an area of applied ethics which deals with the moral principles behind the operation and regulation of marketing. Some areas of marketing ethics overlap with media and public relations ethics.
Kantar Group is a global data, insights, and consulting company based in London, England. It was founded in 1992, and has approximately 30,000 employees in over 90 countries working in various research disciplines, including brand guidance, brand strategy, social media monitoring, advertising effectiveness, consumer and shopper behaviour, and public opinion.
"Youth Marketing" is a term used in the marketing and advertising industry to describe activities to communicate with young people, typically in the age range of 11 to 35. More specifically, there is teen marketing, targeting people age 11 to 17, college marketing, targeting college-age consumers, typically ages 18 to 24, and young adult marketing, targeting ages 25 to 34.
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), incorporated by a Royal Charter, is the trade body and professional institute for agencies and individuals working in the UK's advertising, media and marketing communications industry.
Mitch Joel is an entrepreneur and writer. He was president of Twist Image, a digital marketing agency that was purchased by WPP in 2014 and president and a founding partner of Distort Entertainment. Currently, he is a professional keynote speaker and the co-founder of ThinkersOne.
Bates CHI & Partners is an advertising and marketing agency and a member of the WPP Group.
Thinkbox is the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK. Its shareholders are Channel 4, ITV, Sky Media and UKTV. Together Thinkbox's shareholders represent over 99% of commercial TV advertising revenue through their owned and partner TV channels. Thinkbox's Associate Members are Disney, TAM Ireland, Think TV (Australia), thinktv (Canada), TVN Media (Poland), TV Globo (Brazil), Tenk TV (Norway), DSTv, and Virgin Media. Discovery Networks UK & Ireland and STV also give direct financial support.
The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) was set up in 2008 under the Brown Government charged with bringing together government departments, law enforcement agencies, academia, private industry and third-sector representatives such as charities and voluntary groups to collaborate on strategies to ensure child internet safety. It is a group made up of more than 200 constituent organisations with a board chaired by ministers. It collates internet safety research, conducts its own consultations, gives advice to industry providers and publishes a code of practice. The remit of the Council began with the Byron Review and the group has subsequently drawn on diverse sources including the Bailey Review and the work of Professor Sonia Livingstone.
The Family and Parenting Institute is an independent charity that exists to make the UK a better place for families and children. It works with charities, businesses, and public services to offer practical help to families. Its campaigns and research work focus on building a "family friendly" society by offering insights into current and future family life. It runs the Family Friendly scheme, which aims to help public and private organisations to better understand diverse families and meet their needs. The Family and Parenting Institute merged with the Daycare Trust in January 2013 and is now called the Family and Childcare Trust.
Hogarth Worldwide is a WPP-owned global company that provides marketing Implementation services, including all-channel production and language services to blue-chip international companies. Hogarth has featured in the Televisual poll of top post-production houses.
VMLY&R is an American marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the merger of VML, founded in 1992, and Y&R , founded in 1923. It is a subsidiary of WPP plc multinational advertising and public relations holding company.
The Bailey Review was an inquiry into what was described as "the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood". It was commissioned by the UK Coalition government in response to the manifesto commitments of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties in the 2010 general election. The Coalition believed that children in the UK were "being pressured to grow up too quickly", and sought recommendations on how to address what they perceived as public concern about this. On 6 December 2010 Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, appointed Reg Bailey CBE, Chief Executive of the Mothers’ Union to lead the Review. The results were published on 6 June 2011.