Sen. Pryor Talks Privacy, Food Guidelines to Ad Biz

Advertisers need to be vigilant about self-regulation if they want to keep Washington out of their business. That was the message delivered by Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR), the new chairman of the commerce subcommittee on communications, technology and the Internet in his address before the Association of National Advertisers Advertising Law and Public Policy Conference in Washington.

Pryor's subcommittee is where most of the advertising industry’s most pressing issues will be debated, including privacy, Do Not Track, and food-marketing guidelines to children. "I'm OK with self-regulation. It works well. But one bad actor or loophole could bring down the wrath of Congress on the industry," Sen Pryor said. "If you go the self-regulation route and you’re going to say that should forestall federal regulation, that’s fine. But you better make sure you do it the right way." Sen Pryor signaled the committee and the subcommittee would be "spending quite a bit of time" on privacy, an issue over which a lot of the Senators have very strong opinions. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the full committee, for example, has never trusted self-regulation for privacy issues and never missed an opportunity to say so.