Bermuda is about to get a new cop on the advertising beat. The Minister of Home Affairs is moving the team for monitoring advertising and commercial behavior from state offices to fancy glass offices with a top-flight team of lawyers, accountants, and engineers. Think a G-Man with a pocket calculator and a CHiPs police helmet. The change will mean that consumer protection functions are outsourced by the government to private cops, since the government will no longer have a direct say in patrol days or ticketing.
The market change merges the current utility monitoring of telecoms, electricity, and gas with national consumer protection, cost of living (aka price control), debt collection, and a new national competition authority. Think of it as a sheriff carrying a Swiss Army knife and handcuffs, making daily rounds in a patrol car to monitor 'problem areas'.
For advertising, international regulators apply standards that are vigorously managed to protect the community. This is not a concern in Bermuda; businesses generally deliver clear, honest messages, and local media ensures advertisers maintain high standing through internal guidelines for presentation and production values. On the other hand, social media does not do the same, which has seen 'experiments'.
Truth in advertising is evident until it is not, and that is where the new RA 'ad cops' walk the beat. If there is a sale, once you make the offer, you have to honor it. The G-Men are sticklers for detail and frown on the business owners' efforts to drum up leads by creating a contract that misinforms during the promotional and sales process—such as posting an awesome offer in a social media ad, while the salesperson delivers the rest verbally when you make the purchase. Later, if something goes wrong, the RA 'ad cop' asks to see the contract you read and signed.
Regulatory systems are rule-based—if/then. The ministry indicated that what they love about the system is that it offers measurable consistency, unfazed by 'it was a typo', aiming to ensure accountability for the action—leniency generally does not do too well inside a rigid structure.
However, the 'ad cop’s' rule book struggles with the dynamism of advertising, which is what makes a business stand out. New ideas injected into a rule-based system experience a lag. For instance, a spokesperson used to be a figurehead. Now, an influencer is paid large sums without the realization that they are advertising, and now fake people are giving business endorsements.
Advertisers are a creative bunch; they will see the ad cop, place them inside the box, then paint the box with a marketing message.
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