Heather Roy

30 July 2020

Election billboards are up everywhere you look – on corner sections and fences in the cities and towns and in farmer’s paddocks in the countryside. Digital advertising is also hard to miss and as the election gets closer there will also be plenty of advertisements in the mainstream media too.

This election is a little different from recent elections in that, as well as voting for our electorate MP and the party we want to see in power, there are two important referenda. Cannabis Reform and Euthanasia are both emotive topics. People instinctively feel strongly one way or the other and lobbyists for their cause have been promoting their views through advertising for some time.

Election advertising is actually administered by four separate bodies – the Electoral Commission, Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA), Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and New Zealand Media Council. So who does what? And who should you complain to if you believe an advertisement is misleading? The four agencies have joined forces to put out an excellent infographic to answer these questions:

Multi Agency Political Advertising Guidelines 2020

TorquePoint’s ‘VoterTorque Podcast: Election Advertising’ discusses the ‘Who Does What’ so you know who to contact when something doesn’t seem right in an advertisement.