No society today can live without freedom.
Because freedom is inherent to the human condition. Ernesto Sabato, in his book One and the Universe, said that in our time it was demonstrated that the crimes and political excesses, both of the left and of the right, are a sufficient historical experience to admit that nothing is worth fighting for social justice if it is not a fight for the freedom of the human being and for the dignity that corresponds to him.
In the same way, freedom of expression is the reference or obligatory condition of advertising. A form of commercial expression proper to democratic societies that believe in and decisively support the need for the existence of independent media as the main channels for disseminating news, entertainment and education to the population.
However, freedom does not imply the elimination of limits. The rules or laws that demarcate it are the result of a proper code that should encourage a better coexistence, with the consequent rights and obligations that are born in its light. They are to understand how to move in a particular field of play without committing infractions that result in unfortunate situations or unwanted incidents between players.
Benito Juarez said: Respect for the rights of others is peace.
In the advertising field, this can be translated into a certain need for the existence of codes that allow a common discourse to solve extreme situations, denoting the business maturity of the sector. This is the case of advertisers, media and advertising agencies in our country.
Not with the idea of censorship, but to be able to sit down and talk among experts or professionals on the subject, discuss and recommend us for good, around our own rules of the game and within an authentic climate of freedom, under the observance or not of the state. As long as a doubt arises that transcends.
Beyond the amount of noise that the advertising of one product or service or another achieves for its benefit, society as a whole, or a part of it, has the right to feel harmed or not by a message that is launched without measuring the consequences that its content may have outside of advertising.
The formula has always been to assume the social responsibility involved in advertising, like any other form of communication, and to be located in the present of the people and the place where we live, leaving aside for a moment the interests that motivate the action.
There is never a lack of campaigns or statements with very laudable purposes, which simply because of their form or language, can end up in a gigantic snowball with possible damages never planned or thought of by the interlocutor.
Our freedom will always be proportional to the responsibility we have in exercising it.
What is certain is that advertising will continue to reign in freedom for a long time to come and will be strengthened to the extent that we take on new challenges that mean greater commitments to its essence.
Gustavo Halsband Leveratto
800500829
President of the advertising agency HWP Costa Rica for 40 years.