Only when Congress reneged on the immunity side of the deal this spring did the industry unvolunteer its First Amendment surrender. A law provides the governed with the independent venue of the courts for whatever arguments might unfold. Observers gave Kennedy's bill little chance of passing, but Seagram found itself flummoxed anyway. The networks and most stations refused to sell Seagram air time because they feared liquor ads would prod Congress into investigating the proliferation of beer ads on television. Millions of dollars of ad revenue would be lost if Congress chose to regulate beer ads or, worse yet, proposed new voluntary standards.
Some industries embrace voluntary standards as a way to dodge more onerous government regulation.
Currently, commercial Web publishers think they've staved off Federal Trade Commission regulators by establishing voluntary privacy standards for online users. The FTC completed a survey of Web policies and practices and will deliver its report to Congress in June. Other industries, especially pharmaceutical and medical-device companies, love to wear voluntary regs as a beard and use them to rat out the competition. Oh, look, we're in compliance with the voluntary regulations, but Company X isn't. But bowing to voluntary standards doesn't automatically get a company off the government's hook, either.