The platform ¡Publicidad, Sí!, an initiative promoted by the Spanish Association of Advertisers (aea) which includes the advertising sector in Spain and is made up of advertisers, advertising agencies and the media, has sent a letter to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, expressing its concern about the attacks that the sector is suffering.
This letter comes after the Minister for Consumer Policy, Alberto Garzón, has announced his intention to limit the advertising of food products to children and the draft of the Audiovisual Communication Law, among other matters.
The industry emphasises the serious impact on the advertising sector, a key of the Spanish economy, and the fact that it comes at a critical time because the pandemic has had serious consequences in economic terms.
The advertising sector in Spain generates a volume of business of more than 18,000 million euros, representing 3.5% of the entire service sector in our country, and almost 100,000 jobs. It is a top industry that is internationally recognised and of that 42,971 companies are part of, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics, included in the Report of the Advertising Observatory 2021.
The Plataforma ¡Publicidad, Sí!, says that the unjustified limitations proposed by the Minister for Consumer Policy, Alberto Garzón, are prejudicial to the competitiveness of companies. This fact, in addition to the restrictions also included in the future Audiovisual Communication Law, hinders the digital transformation by introducing regulatory barriers for the development of advertising also in audiovisual channels taking decisions that separate advertising from its surroundings and make it lose its ability to compete as a sector and as a country.
The sector reminds that a few months ago it already presented a declaration in which it made itself available to the government for dialogue on any legislative growth, but unfortunately this has not been the case. It therefore demands that Pedro Sánchez’s government create a collaborative working space to design a regulatory framework that is fair and equal for advertising, that makes it possible to maintain jobs and that puts a stop to these attacks.
