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“Special Interest Group” is defined as an identifiable group, representing more than one individual and/or organization, expressing a unified viewpoint that is critical of the content of an advertisement, and/or the production method or technique, and/or the medium, used to carry the advertisement and convey its perceived message.
The “Special Interest Group” is a category of complainant that closely resembles the consumer complainant. The difference is that the Special Interest Group complaint originates from an organization that is in the nature of, for example, an advocacy group, or a common interest association, or some other collection of individuals or organizations that may themselves be dissimilar, but who share a point of view about a particular issue.
A Special Interest Group differs from an “advertiser” in a Trade Dispute. Both may qualify as “advertisers” as defined in the Trade Dispute Procedure. But the primary focus of a Special Interest Group, unlike that of complainants in a Trade Dispute, is not primarily of a commercial or business nature.
The Consumer Complaint Procedure, described in the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, applies equally to the Special Interest Group Complaint Procedure, except that deleted from the Consumer Complaint Procedure is the entire section captioned “How Consumer Complaints are Received and handled by ASC and Council”. This is replaced by the procedure described under “How Complaints by Special Interest Groups are Received and Handled”.
For full details, see Special Interest Group Complaint Procedure - May 2003.
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