Scenes of a skier dancing in front of Australian Rugby Nick "Honey Badger" Cummins using a leaf blower while dressed in their underwear did not reach the threshold to cause serious or widespread offence, the ASA ruled. Photo: Andrew Cornaga / www.photosport.nz
A misleading Covid-19 vaccine slogan, a health campaign that flipped TV viewers the bird, and two sports stars in their underwear were among last year's top advertisements to provoke the ire of audiences.
Taking out the top spot for the most complained-about non-commercial ad of 2022 was Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand's Vaccinate for Life with 29 complaints about the print promotion.
Complainants told the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) the statement "Protect them for life. Immunise" in the context of advertising for the Covid-19 vaccine was misleading.
ASA's Complaints Board upheld the objections and ordered the ad to be removed or not used again in its then-current form.
The board found it implied a child would have life-long protection from Covid-19 if vaccinated, which was not true.
The health agency's National Immunisation Programme went on to apologise for any confusion or concern the ad may have caused.
The ads that garnered the most grumblings last year have been revealed in the ASA's 2022 annual report, released on Monday.
It showed the authority dealt with 843 complaints regarding 345 advertisements, which was a decline from previous years.
In 2021 there were 1245 complaints concerning 570 ads and in 2020, 1151 complaints were lodged about 591 ads.
Of last year's, 143 of the ads were deemed to have a case to answer and 102 were either changed or removed.
ASA chief executive Hilary Souter was delighted with the voluntary compliance rate of 96 percent with respect to the authority's upheld decisions.
Of the small number that did not comply, she said those were generally cases of advertiser-controlled distribution, such as pamphlet drops.
"From time to time it's hard for us to get confirmation from those companies or organisations that the ads have been removed and we can't prove that they're not going to do it again," Souter said.
She said the reason for last year's reduced number of complaints was the pandemic and the General Election prompting a higher volume in preceding years.
In 2020, more than 100 ads complained about were election and referendum-related, she said.
With election advertising kicking off in July for this year's General Election, Souter expected the number of complaints may increase again.
Regarding last year's figures, advocacy advertisements - non-commercial ads from consumer groups, government or political parties, and those promoting public health or safety messages - were the most commonly complained about at 29 percent of cases.
Other non-commercial ads to gain the most upset from audiences were the Voices for Freedom pamphlets discouraging mask use and Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand's "Stick it to Hep C" campaign which featured a middle finger gesture.
The board upheld the 20 complaints regarding the Voices for Freedom pamphlets but the 18 objections to the Stick it to Hep C promotion were not upheld on appeal.
In the class of commercial ads, where a brand, product or service was being promoted, a televised Tradie workwear campaign gained the most criticism with eight complaints.
Complainants said it was offensive, objectified women and was not appropriate for children to view.
But the Complaints Board dismissed the gripes, ruling scenes of Australian freestyle skier Danielle Scott dancing in front of Australian Rugby Union's Nick "Honey Badger" Cummins using a leaf blower while dressed in their underwear did not reach the threshold to cause serious or widespread offence.
Seven complaints about the "inappropriate" placement of an ad featuring the horror movie The Black Phone was the second most complained about in the commercial category and was upheld by the board.
Souter said a lot of time went into the complaints process.
The ASA comprised six staffers, four of whom worked full-time on complaints, and once a complaint was raised the ad in question was reviewed by the board's chair.
If the complaint was accepted, the advertiser, the agency, and the media company were asked to respond.
A case is then prepared and handed over to the nine-member Complaints Board, which meets fortnightly, to consider.
This year the ASA turns 50 and Souter said just as advertising had shifted, so had the authority's regulatory approach.
She said advertising had moved from big investments in long campaigns featuring a number of components to shorter campaigns with less expenditure generally in the digital environment.
There now needed to be more focus on education to assist with proactive regulation, she said.
"Particularly where ads have a very short life span we think there's more value in putting resources into education and helping people who are making the ads, or publishing the ads [...], have more information at the start of the process of what's okay and what's not."
This story was first published by the NZ Herald.