Complaint over Nordmeyer advertisement to be considered by ASA

Progressive leader and Wigram MP Jim Anderton has received a response to his formal complaint to the advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority, which has decided that an advertisement for DB Export Beer is worthy of consideration on the grounds that the advertisement on television and in the print media breaches several of its codes of conduct.

Jim Anderton’s complaint claims that the DB Export Beer advertising campaign portrays Labour Finance Minister Arnold Nordmeyer as a tight-fisted bore but distorts facts and uses misleading actual footage of the Waterfront Lock-out of 1951 to rewrite history to illustrate its point.

The subtext of the DB advertisement pushes the liquor industry line that government has no role in regulating the sale of liquor and basically supports the lack of effective action by the National-led government to implement the key recommendations of the Law Commission’s report on the problems surrounding the use and abuse of alcohol in New Zealand.

The ads will be judged on whether they have broken two advertising principals and one rule:

Basic Principal no 2) - No advertisement should impair public confidence in advertising

Basic Principal no 3) - No advertisement should be misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive the consumer.

Rule 2) Truthful Presentation - Advertisements should not contain any statement or visual presentation or create an overall impression which directly or by implication, omission, ambiguity or exaggerated claim is misleading or deceptive, is likely to deceive or mislead the consumer, makes false and misleading representation, abuses the trust of the consumer or exploits his/her lack of experience or knowledge.

“The ASA has considered that the complaint against this advertising campaign falls within its jurisdiction and whether or not it is a breach of their code needs to be determined by them.

“This is good news as history is too often misrepresented through the careless use of information or even deliberate misinterpretation. I hope the ASA puts this matter right as not to do so would be a huge disservice to the lifetime’s work of Nordmeyer and allow our history to be cynically rewritten for the sole purpose of selling beer or other any products”, says Jim Anderton.

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