ACA GIVES THUMBS DOWN TO PROPOSED BUREAU CHANGES
By Adnews Staff
The Association of Canadian Advertisers says that roughly three out of five marketers don't like a series of operating changes proposed by the Competition Bureau of Canada, feeling that they would "hamper advertisers' abilities to respond to the marketplace in a timely fashion." In particular, marketers who responded to ACA's survey regarding the proposed changes objected to the Competition Bureau's intention to give itself more time to answer marketer's requests for advice. The bureau wants to stretch the time frame to eight-to-ten working days to answer non-complex questions and up to 30 days to answer complex questions. Over two-thirds of survey respondents felt that time frames of this length would render the answers less useful in a fast moving marketplace. Response times of two-to-five days for simple questions and five-to-twenty days for complex question are more to marketers' liking, said the survey. Survey respondents were less upset about the bureau's plan to introduce a fee of $500 to $1000 for dispensing advice. Sixty percent of respondents said such a fee would not deter them from seeking the bureau's advice. Finally, 80% of the survey participants were in favour of publishing the bureau's advisory opinions on a no-name basis to aid others seeking similar advice.