IEA Editorial and Research Fellow Prof. Len Shackleton has penned an op-ed for The Critic, discussing his latest research paper ‘Ad break: Why Curbs on Advertising Harm Free Speech’.

Len argues that increasing restriction on advertising by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) are a threat to freedom of speech, saying “Paternalistic interventions, aimed at reducing harms allegedly caused by legal economic activity, treat people as incapable of making their own choices“.

Len acknowledges advertising has its downside like all industries. And although some regulation could be justified, “we have gone too far in controlling what can or cannot be said by those seeking to sell products, a vital function in the modern economy“.

Read the full article here.