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ASIA PACIFIC: NEW ZEALAND

Recent Trends in Children's Advertising in New Zealand – What Example Are You Setting?
Author: Lisa Clark, Hesketh Henry

As previously reported, New Zealand introduced a new Code for Advertising to Children in April 2006.  Recent advertisements to be considered by the Advertising Standards Authority ("ASA") indicate that the Code is being applied so as to ensure that advertising does not set a bad example for children. These include:

• a newspaper advertisement promoting the screening of a match featuring the national rugby team the All Blacks at a pub (held to be an inappropriate linking of children's heroes with alcohol);
• an advertising campaign for a meat-lovers' pizza called "Lust" which involved dropping condoms accompanied by explicit instructions in people's letterboxes (generating a record of over 600 complaints to the ASA from people offended by the method of delivery and concerned children would pick up the items, eventually however decided under the Code of Ethics); and
• a television commercial showing a couple fighting with each other over who gets to drive their new car (moved to a post 8:30 pm slot to avoid children imitating the potentially injurious behaviour).

The need for caution on the part of those advertising food to children continues as well.  A potato chips commercial promoting inclusion of the product in children's lunchboxes was withdrawn following a complaint that it could encourage obesity, despite the advertiser taking care to focus on "portion control".  However a complaint about an ad by McDonalds which spoke about healthy eating and exercise generally, and which did not directly refer to McDonald’s products but featured its logo at the end, was not upheld as the information was presented in a "matter-of-fact" way and promoted a positive message. 

Companies such as McDonalds and Cadbury will however need to take care with the use of quasi-educational "fun" websites which refer to their products and recipes.  The New Zealand Children's Commissioner recently noted that interactive websites were a concern as they "make the message far more powerful", and that she would be "very worried about … commercial advertising masquerading as anything else … what you're effectively doing is trying to make [children] into consumers from an earlier time."