IAP – Istituto dell'Autodisciplina Pubblicitaria (Institute of Advertising Self-Discipline) celebrates a historic milestone: 60 years of service to fairness in commercial communications. Founded in 1966 to fill a regulatory gap, IAP has successfully transformed fairness in advertising into a truly shared market culture, often anticipating legislation in regulating complex phenomena such as influencer marketing and digital communications.
Today, the challenge has shifted to a new frontier: generative AI, deepfakes, and personalized advertising, which require lightning-fast responses and increasingly flexible rules.
Seven different industry experts discussed the issue on ItaliaOggi, including Carlo Ginevra, who emphasized that the IAP's great merit was in creating a system of living rules, capable of guiding the market well before government intervention. Current challenges, linked to the speed and pervasiveness of artificial intelligence, personalized advertising, and native advertising, now require the IAP to adopt increasingly flexible rules and extend its effectiveness more effectively to the owners of large global platforms. Looking ahead, Ginevra hopes for stronger coordination with the European context and the Institute's ability to intervene proactively through systematic monitoring of digital content. Finally, it is necessary to broaden the membership base to include all stakeholders in the supply chain and enhance the visibility of its decisions to increase their reputational impact.
