Advertising In £ s d

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31967, 19 April 1969, Page 12

Advertising In £ s d

’’ A crude form of misleading the public ”, was the description applied to advertisements in £ s d by the Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) this week. Yet in reply to a question at a businessmen’s luncheon

he said there was no proposal to make the practice illegal. It is true, as the Minister said, that the practice is “gradually fading away, at least in *’ metropolitan centres ”. In yesterday’s issue of “ The Press ” the only products advertised solely in £ s d were motor vehicles and parts—and only a minority of those. A few of the cars and houses offered for sale were quoted in both pounds and dollars, the pre-decimal currency being shown in brackets.

July 10 will be the second anniversary of decimal currency in New Zealand. Those who believe that “ buyers still think in terms of £ s d ” give the public too little credit for adaptability to change. In Australia this form of advertising was banned by law after two years. In New Zealand some trade groups, of which the Real Estate Institute is a good example, have persuaded their members to cease advertising in £ s d. except parenthetically. Everyone in the printing industry will be glad to see the last of the old symbols, which multiply the possibility of error. Mr Muldoon evidently hopes that there will be no need to legislate against advertisements in £ s d in New Zealand. So do we. But if advertisers persist in using a device which, intentionally or unintentionally, confuses or misleads the public, the Government will have to set a term to their licence to live in the past.