Close-Up: The ASA chief who is ready to fight government.

Chris Smith is determined to bring a new approach to the battle for self-regulation. By our Parliamentary correspondent.

Lord Smith of Finsbury is a political poacher turned advertising industry gamekeeper, and, as the chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority, has boldly put himself at the head of the campaign to quell growing demands by politicians and pressure groups for legislation to curb ads for junk food, alcohol, gambling and those which 'commercialise' childhood.

As a former culture secretary, Chris Smith, as he prefers to be called, knew the ad industry from the other side of the fence when he took on the ASA role in July last year. However, he is now winning plaudits from adland as it mans the barricades and steels itself for the upcoming battles that, over the next few months, threaten the survival of the industry's self-regulatory system.

Smith admits the stakes are high, and that the case for self-regulation can no longer be taken for granted - it has to be battled for, and won, all over again.

'We will continue to make the case as loudly as we can. We have a very good case and I think my former colleagues in government will listen,' he says.

The former Labour MP arrived at the ASA five days after Gordon Brown became the prime minister. He sensed a change of attitude towards advertising by the Government after the change at the top. 'There certainly appears to be an added concern coming out of 10 Downing Street in a number of areas,' he says.

However, he doesn't think it's all down to the handover from Tony Blair to Brown, but rather that the groups campaigning for curbs have become more vocal and decided that advertising is a soft target. 'The 'something must be done' school of argument makes it an easy lever to grab,' he says.