4As Adopt Non-Discrimination Policy

The American Association of Advertising Agencies has adopted a non-discrimination media vendor policy and complaint review process for advertising on all media, the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council said Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the ad agency association confirmed that it was indeed adopting a nondiscrimination policy.

"This historic achievement will directly combat the invidious ‘No Urban' and ‘No Spanish Dictates' that cost minority broadcasters millions of dollars annually," said MMTC in a statement.

MMTC praised the move and said it hoped one day the policy could be expanded to include rate and contract term inequities.

That advertiser dovetails with the FCC's advertising nondiscrimination policy. The commissioner advised TV stations earlier this year that they had to certify that their ad contracts were nondiscriminatory or face losing their licenses.

The FCC had taken some heat from MMTC for what it said was inaction on enforcing advertising nondiscrimination rules passed in 2007.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.