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Liquor Advertising – Again!
Liquor advertising is under scrutiny
yet again for what must be the umpteenth time over the last 20
years, being an easy target for the antis.
This time it comes via the Law
Commission Review into the overall regulatory environment for the
supply and promotion of liquor. For a welcome change, the
self-regulatory system operated by the Advertising Standards
Authority, of which the RBA is a member, receives strong support.
That won’t stop the antis from, as usual, calling for bans or severe
restrictions but at least we are starting with our nose in front.
Where the Government goes from here is
anyone’s guess, but ours is that because of the complexity and heat
generated by the issue, they are likely to produce a Discussion
Paper before moving to drafting of legislation.
One interesting move that has been
undertaken by the ASA has been the establishment, for the first
time, of a Code to cover non-advertising promotional activities such
as sales promotions, naming, packaging, sponsorships etc. This has
been in response to criticisms that while the advertising Code may
work reasonably well, unscrupulous marketers will “skirt around the
edges” of the intent of the Code and use other promotional
techniques that have, until now, been without restriction.
Key to the success of this will be
enforcement by the major retail groups who will withdraw any
products found guilty of breaches against the Code – at least until
modified to comply. Both grocery chains and all major liquor retail
groups have signed on for the enforcement programme so we are
confident that we will be able to achieve a high level of
compliance.
Our submission to on the Alcohol Reform Bill
Our submission to the ASA on the Liquor Code Review
Advertising Agency
Commissions
In a highly controversial
move, TVNZ has given notice of its intention to reduce agency
commission from the present 20% to 10% from the beginning of 2011.
To our way of thinking,
this achieves nothing other than “alignment of convenience” with
Australia.
As all media proprietors
know, almost without exception the media commission is rebated back
to agency clients, who then start with a “clean slate” fee
arrangement. At the October Board meeting, it was resolved to take a
“wait and see” position on this issue. The Commerce Act makes it
impossible for the various media groups to collaborate on this
issue, so each group has to take its own decision.
Our Annual Report
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