Advertising and Socialism

With all the changes in our great country that seem to be taking place these days, I found an article that I read in Advertising Age magazine to be very interesting.  It was about how capitalism or socialism can effect all advertising.  What is more capitalistic than advertising?  Those of us in the advertising business would never think we should not advertise a brand or be gagged in our creative message.

The article was about Venezuelan advertising agencies and how the Hugo Chavez socialism of government

Freedom of Advertising?

instituted a “GAG LAW”.  What this means is that all advertising will be censored.  The article states that most of the ad talent has left to go somewhere else for good reason.  Some in Venezuela are questioning if advertising will continue to exist in their county as the government is taking over and can revoke a license if they do not like what you are creating.

When I read this article, I began to wonder what it would be like to have our government censoring outdoor advertising, radio, TV, blogs, internet and print.  How would something like this affect all of us in the advertising business?  Would the government decide that they do not like billboards and just say take them all down and go find something else to do?  Or maybe they would censor who can advertise on a billboard.

I know there are many that would like to censor a lot of things they do not like.  I can sometimes agree with that except that we have the best country and freedoms in the world, and I for one am not willing to give that up.  I may not always like the advertisement, but I will stand next to them for the right of freedom of speech!

Randy Bloemendaal