In many of my posts this year I raised many concerns about activist government and their harmful actions towards online marketing. Key controversies I highlighted included FDA's meddling in search ads and social media and FTC's questionable scheme for social media regulation.

I am glad the official advertising industry groups are taking note and preparing to fight back. AdAge published a lengthy editorial (behind a paywall), reproduced on the site of Advertising Education Foundation. The notable thing about this piece is that it puts together the "full picture" of how the newly activist government is preparing to harm the business of marketing.

What are the key highlights and takeways?

Let me just say it is not every day that a major industry publication uses the phrase "scared shitless". Yet this is exact quote, describing how pharma marketing industry is feeling about FDA's actions on search ads:

"All we know is that while the situation might not be resolved, and there aren't any regulations yet on [search ads], the FDA has spoken and our clients are listening," said one health-care-ad-agency president. "They're scared shitless."

Marketers are struggling to figure out how to handle the new challenges, a struggle that carries huge stakes. "The government, the FDA, Congress, they have no idea of the repercussions of some of these decisions," said a high-profile attorney who has represented both the health-care and advertising industries. "They talk about wanting to boost the economy, yet more regulation will shrink the industry and have a negative domino effect: less advertising by companies, less work for ad agencies, less work for production houses and graphic people, less advertising in media."

While I had a good idea about the situation around FDA and FTC, it was interesting to see the struggles of the marketing industry put in broader perspective. The amount of government intervention, ongoing or in progress, is staggering and disturbing. Here is a brief summary of most visible impact:

There are efforts to strip the $4.7 billion direct-to-consumer-drug category of its tax deductibility; congressional concern over consumer tracking on the internet, endangering the $23.4 billion online-ad market; Food and Drug Administration scrutiny of such household names as Cheerios and Tylenol; proposed guidelines from the Federal Trade Commission seeking disclosure for paid blog posts, even tweets; and, of course, the federal government's strong hand in setting -- and sitting on -- ad budgets at Chrysler and General Motors. With a new Congress and an administration seeking funding for health care and other programs, marketing has become an unpopular and easy target ripe for regulation and shakedown to fund the federal piggy bank. 

Marketers and free speech advocates, prepare for the fight of your life!

To be sure, the industry is just starting to mobilize its response to demonstrate just how harmful its destruction would be to the economy and the business climate. For starters, marketing usually gets more blame than it deserves:

"Advertising is the makeup on the public face of capitalism, for better or for worse, so any tension that people feel about capitalism comes right down to their feelings about advertising," said Randall Rothenberg, CEO of the Internet Advertising Bureau. "If what happens in business offends them, the advertising gets blamed. If we don't like gas-guzzling cars, the advertising gets blamed, because it is easier to blame the advertising than it is to blame the millions of people out there struggling in Michigan building cars." 

Marketing industry should emphasize its role in economic recovery

The irony is that during a severe economic downturn and repeated failures to stimulate the economy, marketing gets the blame! To get consumers to spend again the government should be pulling out all the stops to promote commerce, especially online. Advertising industry leaders understand this:

The industry argues, moreover, that instead of targeting Madison Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue should be asking how marketing could help the wobbly economy. "What is fascinating is if you flip the problem upside down and ask, 'What role can marketing play in the recovery of this economy and the growth of this economy?'" said John Greco, president-CEO of the Direct Marketing Association. "It's idealistic, but there really ought to be a larger movement in Washington that looks at how do we take all the good that marketing does and support that? All of the discussion is always about the negative." 

The fight for freedom of commercial speech is just beginning. Consumers and marketers need to get vocal to make an impact.