May '11 PR Rankings Issue - Odwyerpr.com

MEDIA NOTES
FCC’s “non-discrimination” policy gets broadcast feedback
A new mandate intended to stop racial discrimination in
broadcast advertising has some industry pros emitting frequencies
of their own, claiming it limits advertisers’ ability to
engage in standard targeted marketing practices.
By Jon Gingerich
The Federal Communications
Commission in March released a
public notice alerting commercial
radio and television broadcasters to the
commission’s new enforcement policies
regarding discrimination practices in
advertising.
All ad sales contracts from broadcast
stations must now include a nondiscrimination
clause stating stations can’t discriminate
on the basis of race or ethnicity.
Advertisers also can’t use ads for any
discriminatory purpose; if a station
believes an ad is discriminatory in
nature, they must refuse it along with
any ad revenues.
This measure would now make it illegal
for broadcasters to employ the oncecommon
advertising practice known as
“no urban dictates.” This is where advertisers
and ad agencies intentionally by-
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pass stations where they feel its audience
falls outside the ad’s target market.
Advertisers could skip over programs
popular in the black or Latino market, if
they felt the average listener/viewer didn’t
fall within the target market for that
product.
The FCC specifically states the new
requirement is “aimed at advertising
contracts that contain ‘no urban/no
Spanish’ dictates.” The policy comes in
the form of new provisions to broadcast
license renewals. Commercial broadcasters
must complete a nondiscrimination
certification in order to renew their
licenses.
In a press release, FCC Chairman
Julius Genachowski said the commission
will use the new regulations to
“vigorously enforce its rules against discrimination
in advertising sales contracts.”
“Discrimination simply has no place
in broadcasting,” Genachowski said.
The problem, some say, is that the new
rules do not draw a line between the
blurry boundaries where discrimination
begins and common practices employed
in standard marketing end. Eric Rhoads,
Publisher and CEO of radio-industry
trade publication Radio Ink and
Streamline Publishing, said for this reason
the FCC’s new policy, while wellintentioned,
is problematic.
All marketing involves a degree of
informational discrimination. Advertisers
know who their prospective customers
are, and target members of the pool most
likely to purchase their product. The
question becomes: when does the practice
of picking your market go from a
decision based on good business sense
to one based on bigotry?
“If an advertiser is targeting a certain
market they’re going to advertise in
places they think will bring them clientele,”
Rhoads said. “Let’s say we have a
scenario where market research indicates
to an advertiser that a particular
market is just not a viable audience for
them. I don’t want to promote bigotry,
but as an advertiser you should have a
right to make that selective targeting.”
Moreover, because it is the job of the
broadcasters to refuse any advertisement
they feel is being used in a discriminatory
fashion, Rhoads said the new regulation
unfairly places the regulatory burden
on those who sell the ads. Ad reps
— who are usually under pressure to
make sales quotas — aren’t privy to the
nuances of discrimination law, and thus
can’t be expected to adequately sniff out
offenders.
“What ad rep is going to do that?”
Rhoads asked.
Finally, Rhoads said that while the
FCC claims it will “vigorously enforce”
these new rules, it doesn’t adequately
define when ad targeting is discriminatory
and when it isn’t. Is it discrimination
when a client selling products that
primarily targets African Americans
decides it doesn’t want to broadcast in
say, a rural radio market?
“What if someone is advertising a
product that appeals mainly to a black
audience. Could a predominantly white
radio station now claim these advertisers
are being bigoted?”
“All of this started for legitimate reasons,”
Rhoads continued, “but this is not
something the FCC should be touching.”