DAMIEN VENUTO
New rules for selling liquor
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is calling on interest groups and the public to have their say on a review of the guidelines for advertisements featuring alcoholic beverages.
New Zealand legislation already provides strict guidelines on what can and cannot be done in alcohol advertising, but the review is part of a regular effort by the ASA to ensure that its guidelines continue to reflect the way products are advertised in the modern media environment.
“This is not about whether advertising alcohol should be legal or not,” says ASA chief executive Hilary Souter.
“That’s a discussion you need to have with the Government.” Instead, she says, the review’s aim is to make sure the ASA isn’t missing anything in its efforts to ensure that alcohol advertising observes a high standard of social responsibility — particularly when it comes to children.
That standard has become increasingly difficult to achieve as advertising has moved online — as illustrated by an ASA decision last year, in which a university researcher was able to access Corona advertising while logged into a Facebook profile
for someone aged under 18. To its credit, Corona quickly acknowledged a mistake had been made and updated its age verification controls on Facebook.
Souter says Facebook also has strict rules governing how alcohol is advertised on its platforms, doing what it can to ensure younger consumers aren’t exposed to the wrong kind of content online.
That said, the online environment
is evolving quickly and there could be ways in which ads are slipping through the cracks and reaching eyeballs that shouldn’t be targeted.
Souter says the review of the code presents an opportunity for members of the public to provide examples of online ads they’re worried about, saying that many of the guidelines have been shaped by real-world examples that have appeared before the board. The guidelines are
malleable, bending over time to reflect changing media and social standards.
The more examples the ASA is able to see, the better equipped it will be to ensure that New Zealand’s strict legislative restrictions are reflected in the ads that appear online.
Advertising executive Ahamad Salim has worked on numerous alcohol campaigns over the years and says he isn’t concerned by the prospect of a tightening of the rules.
“To be honest, the internal marketing rules of most of the alcohol clients we work with are so much stricter than any country’s code,” says Salim, group business director at Colenso BBDO.
He says there’s far too much at stake for major companies to be pushing the bounds when it comes to online advertising.
“The alcohol industry is already under so much scrutiny, and they don’t want to be caught doing the wrong thing.” Salim says that in any industry, alcohol or otherwise, the riskiest advertising rarely comes from big established brands but rather from smaller challengers, who are looking to get noticed in a cluttered market — and this is where you sometimes see mis-steps.
The alcohol industry has already seen an example of that at the ASA this year, with start-up Ketonic vodka being censured by the ASA for using sex to sell its product and for implying that drinking it would make you socially successful.
Looking further ahead, the rules being shaped for alcohol advertising today will also take on greater significance in coming years if recreational cannabis is legalised in this market. There are still many variables and few guarantees, but opportunistic start-up companies will certainly snap at any opportunity to get noticed in the local scene if legislation is liberalised. You can rest assured, though, the fastidious eyes at the ASA will be watching closely if New Zealand media starts to take on a greener hue.