The Research Of Advertising Regulation In The United States

The United States is the most developed countries in the advertising industry in the world nowadays,and is also one of the most effective model countries to regulate the advertising industry since modern times.The earliest government regulation of advertising can be traced back to the 1870 s.The U.S.Postal Service made the direct and indirect regulation of mail advertising.Later,the self-regulatory organizations have begun to appear one after another in the advertising industry during the poster advertising era of the 1980 s.The rise of the American modern advertising regulation system started with the "truth-in-advertising movement" in 1911 and the establishment of the Federal Trade Commission(FTC)as a symbol,which was fully constructed.It has been over a hundred years of history until now.After a long period of institutional development and practical experience,the applicability and effectiveness of the American advertising regulation system have won the acceptance and approval of the government and industry stakeholders,and the America has become one of the classical models of the supervision and regulation of the world advertising industry.Regulation is mainly divided into heteronomy and self-regulation,which complement each other and are indispensable.They are dialectical and unified.American advertising regulation is gradually formed under the system of heteronomy dominated by Congress,the White House and the courts(representing legislation,administration and justice respectively).This regulation pattern is supplemented by the self-restraint of the participants in the advertising industry.In this system,Congress and the government are responsible for legislation and administration(the government also has some legislative power),the court is responsible for judicature and forms the case law at the same time,which becomes the main part of the regulatory system.Meanwhile,the participants in the advertising industry form their own industry standards and self-regulatory programs according to the laws and regulations.In the regulatory system of advertising industry,heteronomy is like the central nervous system in the "living organism",while self-regulation islike the nerve endings in the body.In the area of government regulation failure,self-regulation has stronger adaptability and effectiveness.American advertising regulation operates under the constitutional system and the Bill of Rights is the democratic cornerstone of the American constitutional system.The First Amendment has become the most fundamental legal basis for advertising expression and the main legal disputes in the review of constitutionality about government advertising regulation.From the perspective of the right,advertising,as a commercial speech,should be protected by freedom of expression,but because of its "profit-seeking" nature,it is considered to be unable to promote social well-being and is excluded from the scope of protection for a long time.With the development of constitutionalism,the promotion of the value of commercial civilization and the increasing importance of consumers' right to know,advertising speech has gradually been brought into the scope of freedom of speech protection.This makes advertising rights have the characteristics of "competition and cooperation",which challenges the existing theoretical system of rights classification,and also makes the government advertising regulation must abandon the original single standard and refer to the multi-standard system.This provides a great flexibility for the citation of precedents and judicial interpretation of advertising regulation.The development of media is another important reference system that promotes the perfection of the advertising regulation system.Under the background of print advertisement,the technology is relatively simple and the influence is very limited.Advertising regulation just needs to limit the bottom line of content and relief afterwards,and the regulation system can only be basically constructed by constitution and common laws.With the advent of electronic media such as broadcast,film and television,the space of communication has been greatly expanded.The regulation system based on the print media has been unable to adapt to the realistic demands of broadcasting,film and television advertising.As a result,electronic media regulations have been promulgated,and advertising regulations have entered the era of classified management.For the sake of public interest,the government began to increase theregulation of radio and television advertising.With the rise of new media in the late20 th century,the traditional classification supervision mechanism had to be deconstructed again.In addition,media convergence is imperative because of influence of the western ideological thought.In the new media era of media convergence,advertising regulation has entered a new adaptation period,the traditional advertising regulation system still plays a fundamental role,and it works actively in the area of the new media advertising.the Federal Trade Commission(FTC),the Federal Food and Drug Administration(FDA)and so on.The independent regulators,such as the Federal Trade Commission(FTC),the Federal Food and Drug Administration(FDA),have expanded its management to include new media advertising.The Federal Communications Commission(FCC)has regulated all kinds of media through new statutory law in unapplicable areas.The diversification of advertising forms,the re-upgrading of media,and the multi-dimension of ideas make the advertising regulation system in the new media era more tensioning and flexible.This paper is divided into nine parts,which are composed of introduction,summary and seven chapters.The first chapter mainly combs the historical origin and evolution of advertising regulation;the second chapter focuses on the theoretical motivation and practical basis of advertising regulation;the third chapter analyzes the subject and framework of advertising regulation;the fourth chapter mainly explains the regulation of unfair competition advertising,and the fifth chapter demonstrates the field of supervision of advertising;the sixth chapter focuses on the theory and practice of advertising self-regulation;the seventh chapter explores the regulation challenge and adjustment brought by new media advertising.The article attempts to elaborate on the two aspects of advertising heteronomy and self-regulation,focusing on advertising heteronomy,taking into account advertising self-regulation.At the same time,I hope to analyze the system,elements,contents and channels of advertising regulation,and combine the vertical historical analysis method to show the concept,framework,content and methods of American advertising regulation.Finally,we canconclude the rule and characteristics of American advertising regulation system.The main findings of this study include the following.The major factor in the evolution of American advertising regulation is the change of the regulatory concept.The legal regulation reflects the variety of legal principle,from respecting the property right at the beginning to paying attention to the individual right later.What is reflected in the concept of business relationship is from "protecting competitors" purely to "protecting consumers" as well as "protecting competitors",and from paying attention to "economic regulation" to paying more attention to "social regulation".The concept has changed from emphasizing "process fairness" to "result fairness" in the judgement of fairness.On the other hand,what the social motivation embodies is the repeated game between the regulators and the force of anti-regulation.There are two regulatory dimensions in this motivation.They are freedom of business speech and market competition.Of course,it contains a lot of value directions,such as freedom of speech,fairness,promotion of competition,protection of consumer rights,protection of minors,public interest,health rights,privacy,and so on.All of these provide theoretical and practical basis for the conflict and adjustment of regulation.However,due to the American advertising system is too complex and dense,it is inevitable that there are a lot of immature places in the study about this subject.We hope to deepen and refine the further research in the future.