AAMU Marketing Professor Will Work to Ensure Truth and Accuracy in National Ads

Dr. Alicia Cooper has been appointed to serve on the National Advertising Review Board (NARB) for the next two years. The NARB is the appellate body for the U.S. advertising industry’s system of self-regulation, which helps set consistent standards for advertising truth and accuracy. Cooper is an Associate Professor of Marketing, and Marketing Program Coordinator in the Management, Marketing & Logistics Department in the College of Business and Public Affairs.

“I am excited and honored to serve as an NARB panel member,” says Cooper. “This organization is one of the Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) National Programs. The board is tasked with reviewing appeals to decisons made by the National Advertising Division (NAD) and providing recommendations for corrective acton when necessary.”

NARB panel pool members, selected for their stature and experience in their fields, provide independent peer review to ensure truthfulness and accuracy in national advertising and help promote voluntary compliance with self-regulatory decisions.

Cooper will serve on a panel to resolve appeals from decisions made by both NAD and the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU). The NARB is made up of 97 members from different professional backgrounds. Each panel typically consists of four to five members: two to three advertiser members who work for companies engaged in national advertising, one advertising agency representative, and one public member, frequently from academia.

“I would serve as the public member,” says Cooper. “My role will be to represent the consumer’s perspective when evaluating a truth-in-advertising challenge decisions and appeals.”

In more than 90% of case decisions, companies voluntarily comply with any advertising recommendations made.

Cooper, who has been at AAMU for three years, received her Ph.D. in Marketing from Michigan State University, her M.B.A. from Clark Atlanta University, and her B.A. in Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her teaching interests include Principles of Marketing, Marketing Strategy and Consumer Behavior.

Her primary areas of research include marketing education best practices, brand building in Ghana, and social responsibility in the supply chain, specifically minority supplier and fair-trade issues. In 2023, Cooper served as Co-Editor of the “Teaching Innovation Special Issue of Marketing Education Review.” Cooper’s research has been published in “Marketing Education Review,” “Atlantic Marketing Journal,” “Journal of Asia Pacific Marketing,” and “Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice.”

“I owe a debt of gratitude to the American Advertising Federation (AAF) and the leadership of its HBCUs for Advertising program for nominating me to serve on such a distinguished board,” says Cooper. “This nomination is a continuation of the generous support that has been provided to Alabama A&M University by the AAF HBCUs for Advertising program.”  

Cooper says since 2021 the program has supported the establishment of an AAMU student chapter of the AAF, in addition to providing professional development activities for students. Her new role will assist in that endeavor.

“Even though I haven’t yet had the opportunity to review an appeal, I have been able to share what I’ve learned about this process with my students,” she says. “Usually, I would discuss regulation in the advertising industry in very general terms, but now the topic has really become more meaningful for me and my students. We visit the BBB website and examine decisions and appeals that have been delivered across several marketing and advertising regulatory programs. I’m even thinking about course assignments that I can create to further engage students.”