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accessible information to their constituents about the legal framework in place,
the authorities responsible and the remedies available, with a good initiative
being to issue practical guidelines for citizens and consumers of the various
rules and codes in place and possible remedies.
104. The Special Rapporteur recommends that legislation, regulations and
policies adopted by States and local authorities, where relevant:
(a) Be adopted or amended following consultations with civil society
organizations, and not only the corporate sector;
(b) Be geared towards reducing the level of commercial advertising and
marketing that people receive daily, indicating in particular what should be
considered as unreasonable in terms of, for example, the number, intensity and
frequency of advertisements, sound volume, luminosity, location and size, and
be aimed at the proactive implementation of environmental and other
legislation through the prompt removal of illegal advertising;
(c) Be based on the fundamental principle that commercial advertising
and marketing should always be clearly identifiable and distinguishable from
other content on all media, in all places and on all supports, and that this be
tested with the target audience and be applied to all new advertising strategies,
including the use of brand ambassadors and native advertising; ensure that
messages are labelled as advertising in an internationally recognized format;
and establish a compulsory, clear and uniform system of labelling for all
in-game advertising and “advergames”;
(d) Prohibit all resort to subliminal and surreptitious methods, and
restrict advertising that is processed implicitly, taking into consideration
various factors such as the age and capacity of the persons targeted as well as
the amount of advertisements they receive, and provide that the example of
countries that have restricted brain-imaging techniques to scientific, medical
and judiciary usage be followed;
(e) Ban all commercial advertising and marketing in public and private
schools and ensure that curricula are independent from commercial interests;
(f) Further identify spaces that should be completely or especially
protected from commercial advertising, such as kindergartens, universities,
nurseries, hospitals, cemeteries, parks, sports facilities and playgrounds, as well
as cultural heritage sites and such cultural institutions as museums, with the
banning or drastic limitation of outdoor advertising as an option, as
exemplified by several cities in the world;
(g) Prohibit all forms of advertising to children under 12 years of age,
regardless of the medium, support or means used, with the possible extension of
such prohibition to children under 16 years of age, and ban the practice of child
brand ambassadors;
(h) Contain unequivocal definitions, in particular of the various
advertising and marketing practices being regulated, measurable targets and
strong monitoring mechanisms with meaningful sanctions.
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