THE DMA ADOPTS CHANGES TO MARKETING GUIDELINES

NEW YORK, June 24, 2003 – The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) today announced the adoption of several important revisions to its Guidelines for Ethical Business Practice. The changes affect advance consent marketing, unordered merchandise or services, and adherence to The DMA’s Privacy Promise.

"These changes have been adopted as part of The DMA’s ongoing commitment to promote high ethical standards among member firms and indeed all marketers," said H. Robert Wientzen, president & CEO, The DMA.

"The guidelines unveiled today will be strictly enforced by our ethics committees," cautioned Pat Faley, vice president, ethics & consumer affairs, The DMA.

The revisions affect articles #12, #28 and #31 of The DMA’s Guidelines for Ethical Business Practice, and the changes most notably relate to:

Updating the existing Advance Consent Marketing Guidelines to reflect new FTC rules;
Providing unauthorized services to consumers with the expectation of payment;

Requiring the demonstration of compliance with The DMA’s Privacy Promise.

Consumers, marketers, members of the press, and government officials concerned about possible ethics violations can alert The DMA by using the Ethics Case Complaint Form at

www.the-dma.org/guidelines/EthicsComplaintForm.pdf

The DMA’s Ethics Publications and Tools can be viewed online at

http://www.the-dma.org/guidelines/quickreference.shtml

The DMA’s Guidelines for Ethical Business Practice can be viewed online at

www.the-dma.org/guidelines/ethicalguidelines.pdf

The DMA is the leading trade association for businesses interested in interactive and database marketing, with nearly 4,700 member companies from the United States and 53 other nations. Founded in 1917, its members include direct marketers from every business segment as well as the nonprofit and electronic marketing sectors. Included are catalogers, Internet retailers and service providers, financial services providers, book and magazine publishers, book and music clubs, retail stores, industrial manufacturers and a host of other vertical segments, including the service industries that support them. According to a DMA-commissioned study, direct and interactive marketing sales in the United States are projected to have surpassed $2 trillion in 2002, including $126 billion in catalog sales and $34 billion in sales generated by the Internet. The DMA's Web site is www.the-dma.org, and its consumer Web site is www.shopthenet.org.

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