Summary

For her 2014 report to the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur sought to identify main challenges and obstacles posed by advertising and marketing practices to the enjoyment of cultural rights.

Key Findings and Recommendations

 

One of the questions the Special Rapporteur addressed in her study is whether advertising and marketing practices affect cultural diversity and the right of people to choose their way of life.

Examining new trends in advertising and marketing strategies, the Special Rapporteur expressed concern about the increasingly blurred line between commercial advertising and other content, especially in the areas of culture and education. An overall concern relates to the disproportionate presence of commercial advertising and marketing in public spaces, the myriad advertisements and marketing messages people receive daily, the dissemination of such communications using a large variety of media in a systematic and integrated way and the resort to techniques aimed at circumventing individual rational decision-making.

She included in her report recommendations that States protect people from undue levels of commercial advertising and marketing while increasing the space for not-for-profit expressions. Within the framework of article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and based on the view that commercial messaging may be granted less protection than other forms of speech, the Special Rapporteur recommended that States regulate the area more effectively. Of particular note is the recommendation to ban all commercial advertising and marketing in public and private schools.

Methodology

In order to identify main challenges and obstacles posed by advertising and marketing practices to the enjoyment of cultural rights, including the right to education, the right to artistic freedom, the right to enjoy and access cultural heritage and the right to choose one’s way of life, the Special Rapporteur prepared a questionnaire and disseminated it in December 2013.

See the letter of the Special Rapporteur and the Note verbale.

Read the questionnaire in English.

Learn more about the way policies on public spaces influence the enjoyment of cultural rights.