Responsible marketing and advertising secures consumer trust and preserves a dynamic marketplace where innovation flourishes. ICC provides industry guidance and standards, promoting effective self-regulation and best practices from around the world.
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It is hard to win and quick to lose. In an era of constant visibility, instant feedback and growing scrutiny, what businesses say – and how they say it – matters more than ever.
Consumers expect transparency, fairness and accountability. And regulators expect compliance. Trust, once damaged, is increasingly difficult to rebuild.
ICC sets the global benchmark for responsible marketing through the ICC Advertising and Marketing Communications Code. First adopted in 1937 and updated in step with major global shifts, the Code remains the international reference for marketing and communications that are legal, decent, honest and truthful.
The Code underpins self-regulatory systems in around 50 countries, providing guidance to advertisers, agencies, regulators and governments alike.
By promoting high ethical standards, it helps businesses address emerging challenges such as influencer marketing, artificial intelligence, environmental claims, digital transparency, and advertising to children and teens.
ICC brings together brands, agencies, platforms and experts to keep the Code practical, relevant and fit for purpose. Our aim is to ensure marketing fulfils its potential as a force for good – supporting informed choice, fair competition and responsible communication.
By connecting business with policymakers, regulators and industry leaders, we give our members a voice in shaping standards that define what responsible marketing looks like next.
ICC Global Marketing and Advertising Commission
Georgiana Degeratu, Policy Manager, Marketing and Advertising
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Embedding responsible marketing and advertising standards at the core of business operations is essential to maintaining trust, protecting consumers and ensuring long-term commercial resilience in an increasingly scrutinised communications environment.
The ICC Advertising and Marketing Communications Code and related ICC guidance serve as the gold standard in responsible commercial communications throughout the world. The Code sets out clear principles to ensure marketing is legal, decent, honest and truthful across all channels and formats. By integrating the Code into internal policies, governance structures, and day-to-day decision-making, businesses can align marketing, legal and compliance teams around a shared standard, reduce regulatory and reputational risk and promote fair competition.
This is particularly important as artificial intelligence, influencer marketing, and data-driven advertising continue to blur traditional boundaries and heighten consumer expectations of the brands they buy from.
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In a context marked by growing concern about greenwashing, rising mis- and disinformation, and tightening regulatory oversight, businesses are expected to demonstrate that their environmental claims are accurate, clear and supported by robust evidence. The ICC Framework for Responsible Environmental Marketing Communications provides a globally recognised reference point for meeting this expectation, setting out practical principles to ensure claims are truthful, proportionate and based on verifiable data. By encouraging substantiation that is relevant, up to date and accessible, the Framework helps businesses avoid misleading impressions while enabling them to communicate genuine environmental efforts with confidence.
This is particularly important for complex and evolving areas like climate-related claims, circularity, and environment, social and governance (ESG) communications, where poorly defined terminology or incomplete evidence can easily undermine credibility. Adhering to the Framework not only reduces legal and reputational risks, but also supports fair competition by ensuring that responsible businesses are not disadvantaged by unsubstantiated or exaggerated claims – ultimately strengthening consumer trust and the integrity of sustainability markets.
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Responsible marketing cannot be secured with a one-size-fits-all approach. Certain sectors require extra care to protect consumers and uphold trust.
ICC provides dedicated frameworks to help businesses apply the ICC Advertising and Marketing Communications Code in areas where marketing practices can have heightened impact – such as food and beverage, alcohol, and communications directed at children and teens. These resources offer practical guidance to ensure marketing remains legal, decent, honest and truthful, while addressing sector-specific sensitivities and societal expectations.
By embedding these frameworks into policies and campaigns, businesses can demonstrate accountability, safeguard vulnerable audiences, and maintain confidence in a marketplace that values both creativity and responsibility.
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Well-designed self-regulatory systems provide a practical and trusted complement to legislation by enabling swift action against misleading or harmful advertising, often preventing consumer harm before it can escalate. Grounded in shared standards such as the ICC Advertising and Marketing Communications Code, self-regulation applies consistently across media, platforms and business models, while remaining flexible enough to adapt to technological and societal change.
Self-regulation offers proportionate remedies, transparent decision-making and accessible complaint mechanisms at no cost to consumers, building trust while avoiding lengthy and costly legal processes.
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ICC has announced the appointment of a new leadership team for the ICC Global Marketing and Advertising Commission. The commission is the guardian of the globally recognised ICC Advertising and Marketing Communications Code, the essential framework for industry self-regulation, updated in 2024.
The world’s largest business association – the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) – has issued a call for advertisers and marketers to step up as champions of robust ethical standards in the face of multiple industry disruptions and potential challenges to industry self-regulation.
Ensuring responsible marketing practices worldwide has been a long-standing ICC commitment. The ICC Advertising and Marketing Communications Code or the ICC Code – is a globally applicable, self-regulatory framework, developed by experts across all industry sectors worldwide. Since 1937, it has served as the cornerstone for most self-regulatory systems around the world. The ICC Code […]
ICC supports the aims of the proposed European Commission’s Green Claims Directive but considers the proposed approach to be misguided. Our feedback has been prepared through an open consultative process with members from our global network with comments accessible in this document.
This document provides an overview of generally related current ICC provisions and self-regulatory rules as well as recommended industry best practices and initiatives that would apply to diversity and inclusion matters in marketing communications and advertising. It is intended to raise greater awareness and responsibility of this issue as well as an indication of the related best practices that will be considered in the forthcoming review of the ICC Advertising and Marketing Communications Code.
ICC has welcomed a recently published European Commission proposal for a directive on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive), underscoring the EC’s commitment to combat greenwashing and misleading environmental claims.
The Digital Export Enablement Programme (DEEP) for ASEAN Small Businesses aims to support 1,000 micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the ASEAN region by equipping them with digital export-relevant skills.
ICC has published updated guidance for responsible environmental marketing communications to help marketers and advertisers make truthful and useful environmental claims.
From setting the gold standard for international advertising self-regulation since 1937 to enabling businesses to integrate ethics and compliance considerations into their operations, ICC plays a leading role in enabling high standards of corporate governance based on ethical business practices.
With so much to look back on over the last year, we’re wrapping up 2019 with 12 notable achievements of our world business organisation.
The international go-to-guide for responsible marketing and advertising. It’s the benchmark for almost 50 self-regulatory codes in countries around the world, setting the standard for legal, honest, decent and truthful marketing.
As sustainability shapes consumer choices, clear and credible environmental messaging is vital. The ICC Framework for Responsible Environmental Marketing Communications (ICC Environmental Framework) sets the global benchmark for truthful, non-misleading, clear and substantiated claims.
The ICC/ESOMAR Code is the trusted global benchmark for self-regulation in market, opinion and social research, and data analytics. It guides professional and ethical conduct in the field, fostering public confidence in research, the upholding of best practices and compliance with the law.
The ICC Framework for responsible marketing communications of alcohol (Framework) helps to interpret the fundamental global standards of the Consolidated ICC Code to offer more specific guidance on issues unique to the alcohol sector.
This framework should be read against the background of three intertwined issues: the role of commercial communication in our information-focused society, responsible marketing to children, and the importance of marketing to a competitive economy and consumer choice.
For 80 years, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Commission on Marketing and Advertising has worked tirelessly to promote its core mission: advancing principles of responsible commercial communication through effective self-regulation.
