About Reklamombudsmannen

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About Reklamombudsmannen

What is The Swedish Advertising Ombudsman?

The Swedish Advertising Ombudsman (Reklamombudsmannen in Swedish, abbreviated to RO) is a self-regulation organization. RO´s main task is to review marketing ethics and make sure standards are kept high by self-regulating the industry. RO also inform and educate the public, the industry and the authorities within the area marketing ethics.

RO was founded in January 2009 by The Association of Swedish Advertisers together with Confederation of Swedish Enterprice (NDM), Swedish Advertising Association, ICC, Swedish Direct Marketing Association and Swedish Newspaper Publisher Association.  RO is an independent organisation set up as a foundation with all the founders as members of the board.

What we do

Before RO existed there where two ethical councils to review advertisement, the Trades Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising and the Council on Market Ethics. The former focused on sexism and gender discrimination and the later on other aspects of ethical advertisement, such as marketing to children and misleading advertisement et cetera. RO has incorporated these two councils as well as some smaller groups focusing on topics such as direct marketing health, alcohol, and digital media. Thus RO handles complaints about both gender discriminating and otherwise unethical advertisements and uses the guidance of the Advertising and Marketing Communication Practice from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) when judging ads.

How we are funded

RO is funded by a levy of 0,05 % on Adspend which generate a yearly budget of approx 5 million SEK. The aim is to include advertisers as well as all other companies within the media market. Openness and transparency in payment is essential and RO also provides a yearly education in ethical marketing to the companies contributing.

Swedens first Advertising Ombudsman

Elisabeth Trotzig is Swedens first advertising ombudsman. She has previously worked for 20 years in advertising and media, and been the CEO for the Institute for advertising and media statistics (IRM).