Reviewed by: Kenneth Mullen
Author: Philip Circus
Publisher: Bloomsbury Professional
ISBN: 9781847667397
Price: £70.00

Many in-house and private practice lawyers who are called on to advise on advertising, marketing and sales promotions will be familiar with this Philip Circus’ series of books previously entitled Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing Law: A Practical Guide.

The name of this latest edition of the book (sixth) has been changed we are told to mirror the change in the name of the ‘Institute of Sales Promotion’ to the ‘Institute of Promotional Marketing’ (IPM).

The new name also reflects a number changes in relevant law since the previous edition in 2007 - notably the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 - and the fact that consumer law has moved to a more principles-based approach.

Producing a textbook that aims to provide a practical overview of relevant laws affecting advertising, marketing and sales will always be a challenge, not only given the speed at which the law is being constantly updated both in the UK and Europe but also the ever expanding range of legal material and self-regulation that potentially need to be covered.

In this edition for example, the topics covered range from recent court rulings on prize promotions in Ireland and Germany through to the new UK Bribery Act.

To condense all this down to a work of less than 300 pages (including appendices) is no mean feat.

A unique aspect of Philip Circus’ series, which is retained for this edition, is the easy to follow Q & A format written in plain English.

Many of the issues are introduced through basic headings - for example, ‘e-commerce’ or ‘recommended prices’.

This should make finding the relevant issue a reasonably straightforward task.

Another helpful practical feature is one chapter dedicated to setting out a promotional marketing administration checklist of considerations in planning a promotional campaign.

This is based on the author’s own experience of over 30 years’ of advising on adverting and marketing matters.

As the title indicates, this work is intended to be used as a practical day to day guide.

It’s clear that Circus’ book does not purport to be a reference work for someone looking for an in-depth legal analysis of every issue covered.

Anyone who needs further information on data protection laws across the European Union or an examination of permissible trade mark use in a comparative advertising context, for example, will have plenty of other specialist reference sources to choose from.

However, for time-pressed lawyers and marketing professionals who are not entirely familiar with the regulatory minefield that this area can often be and who need to quickly grasp the legal issues, this book should prove an indispensable tool.

Kenneth Mullen is an intellectual property specialist at Withers

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