Liquor adverts television ban

Press, 3 August 1983, Page 3

Liquor adverts television ban

PA Wellington Super Liquor Man, whose beery attempts to “save the nation” provoked controversy, has crashed to earth with a bump ... and off television screens. Captain Benny Hill and his leggy pirates, cavorting amidst rum and other drink, has been given the old heave ho too. The Broadcasting Tribunal has upheld complaints against the two liquor advertisements on television, and in the light of the decision Television New Zealand yesterday withdrew them from screening. The Super Liquor Man commercial will also be withdrawn by Radio New Zealand. Meeting in Wellington yesterday, the Broadcasting Corporation said that it considered formal complaints lodged in terms of the Broadcasting Act against the Super Liquor Man commercial on television and radio, and the Liquorland advertisement featuring Benny Hill on television,

were in breach of the corporation’s advertising rules. It said: “Rule 2.2 says in paragraph (a): ‘Advertisements must not be framed in such a way as to take advantage of the natural credulity of children’.” “In paragraph (f) of the code of practice to which the B.C.N.Z. subscribes, it states: ‘Liquor advertising should not link liquor with indentifiable heroes or heroines of the young’.” The corporation found the Super Liquor Man advertisement breached the rule and the code and should, therefore, not have been accepted for transmission on television or radio. The Benny Hill Liquorland commercial was found to be in breach of the rule which said: “The advertisement for alcohol must not be broadcast from licensed premises whether wholesale or retail.” The corporation considered this advertisement gave a clear impression of being broadcast from such premises and should not have been accepted for television on those grounds.