Trust as the through-line: inside the Global Marketing and Advertising Commission’s London meeting

ICC Global Marketing and Advertising Commission — 28 April 2026, London

When Alice Himsworth, Chair of the ICC Global Marketing and Advertising Commission, opened proceedings in London on 28 April, she pointed to a single thread running through an otherwise ambitious agenda: trust. Hosted in hybrid format at Google’s Central Saint Giles offices, the meeting drew members from across the globe to debate how the industry maintains, and rebuilds, public confidence at a moment of unusually rapid transformation. By the close of the afternoon, that thread had been pulled through every workstream, every keynote and every regulatory update on the table.

Setting the strategic stage

Raelene Martin, ICC’s Head of Sustainability for Global Policy, set the scene by mapping the Commission’s work onto wider ICC priorities for 2026. She underlined how marketing and advertising expertise increasingly intersects with trade, digital governance, sustainability and consumer protection. Of particular note was the synergy emerging around scams, fraud and organised crime, building on the Digital Economy Commission’s recent paper and ICC’s contribution to the UN Global Fraud Summit. Environmental communications, she added, are now being referenced well beyond this Commission, including in preparations for COP in Antalya later in the year.

The Commission also took a moment to honour Anders Stephens, who has formally stepped down as co-chair of the Code Revision Task Force. As Anders himself put it with characteristic humour, code revision is not for the faint-hearted — but the work he has shaped over four decades remains foundational.

The trust dividend

Stephen Woodford, Chief Executive of the UK’s Advertising Association, then delivered a keynote that gave members both data and direction. While trust in most institutions continues to slide, trust in advertising in the UK has risen from 31% to 40% over recent years. Mr Woodford framed the value of trust under three headings: results, regulation and recruitment. Drawing on the IPA’s databank of effectiveness cases, he showed that trust has climbed from seventh to second place among drivers of commercial success, and that campaigns associated with high trust outperform peers by roughly 30 percentage points on large business effects. MPs who do not trust the industry are five times more likely to want to legislate. And young talent, unsurprisingly, will not join an industry their friends consider untrustworthy.

The drivers of trust, Mr Woodford explained, sit on a roughly 50/50 balance sheet. On the positive side, enjoyment accounts for around 30% and social contribution for 15%. On the negative, “bombardment” — particularly intrusion and repetition — leads, followed by “suspicious advertising”, inside which the share attributed to scams has tripled since 2018. Crypto fraud, data privacy concerns and worries about advertising in high-risk categories complete the picture. The single most strongly correlated factor behind the UK’s trust uplift is awareness of the ASA’s public-facing campaign: among those who recall the ads, trust in advertising stands at 70%, compared with around 30% for those who do not.

Policy in motion

The Commission then turned to its live workstreams. Oliver Gray reported that the Revision of the ICC Framework for Responsible Alcohol Marketing Communications is approaching its third draft, with definitions for alcohol-free brand extensions clarified, references to relevant global best practice incorporated, and a strengthened article on influencer marketing. WFA and IARD confirmed the latest compromise text was close to consensus, with one outstanding issue — the definition of “non-alcohol” — to be resolved in light of widely varying national rules.

The Revision of the ICC Framework for Responsible Food and Beverage Marketing Communications is now beginning, drawing structurally on the alcohol framework and aligning fully with the revised ICC Code. Children, teens and HFSS communications will sit at the heart of the work, and members were invited to step forward as drafters.

Alice Himsworth, leading the new policy product on scams in advertising, reported strong member engagement and important feedback from the Global Advertising Scams Alliance, ICC Belgium and others. Scoping remains the central question: financial fraud is the most acute manifestation, but phishing, identity harvesting and the wider scam journey all bear on consumer trust. The paper’s structure will privilege flexibility over a rigid responsibility map, with annexes potentially used to illustrate the multi-actor pathway. Publication has been pushed beyond June to allow further consultation.

Adam Ingle of LEGO presented an early concept note attached to the Revision of the ICC Toolkit on Marketing and Advertising to Children, alongside a new policy paper on responsible marketing to children and teens. Forty-two countries are now considering social-media restrictions for under-16s. His proposal would seek consensus across platforms on common design features — pushing back against infinite scroll, push notifications and other engagement mechanisms — when marketing material is likely to reach children. The intention is not to oppose regulation but to preserve constructive digital spaces for younger users.

Alex Krasodomski closed the policy round by inviting members to amplify the recently published Responsible AI in Marketing: how to apply the ICC Code. A podcast episode is in production, and the team is exploring speaking opportunities at events such as the AI for Good Summit in Geneva.

Self-regulation under pressure, and ready to lead

A fireside chat between Guy Parker, Chief Executive of the ASA, and Emma Bennett, Chief of Staff of ICC UK, gave members a candid view from the regulator’s chair. Pressure points are well known: scams, misleading advertising, AI, gambling and influencer disclosure. Compliance with influencer labelling has risen to around 60% in the UK — better, but, as Mr Parker put it, a “could-do-better school report”. The ad ethics programme, with around 10,000 influencers trained across Europe, is part of the answer; so too is the forthcoming Intermediary and Platform Principles initiative, formalising platforms’ role in upstream prevention. With Amazon already at $80 billion in advertising revenues and OpenAI publicly targeting $100 billion by 2030, the case for keeping new entrants inside the self-regulatory tent is only strengthening.

Looking outward

Looking ahead, the Commission previewed several headline initiatives: ICC’s first formal presence at Cannes Lions 2026 through a dedicated Self-Regulation Day, in partnership with ICAS, EASA, ARPP and GALA; the imminent launch of the first-ever Portuguese version of the ICC Code, led by ICC Brazil; an early-stage exploration of a voluntary Responsible Advertising and Marketing Label, on which members rightly flagged liability and antitrust caveats; and progress on the ISO Technical Committee on Digital Marketing. Jeff Greenbaum closed with a tour of regulatory hot spots — ambush marketing around the World Cup, all-in and algorithmic pricing, and contested environmental claims.

Next year marks the ICC Code’s 90th anniversary. Members are invited to help shape the celebrations — and, more importantly, to keep the Commission’s work the trusted reference it has long been.