‘Give-away’ advt disputed

Press, 17 March 1987, Page 2

‘Give-away’ advt disputed

Radio Avon has claimed that an advertising campaign by 3ZB was misleading and deceptive. Avon’s station manager, Mr Wayne Johnson, said an injunction would have been filed against 3ZB yesterday over the campaign. Changes to the advertisement, which claimed 3ZB had more

than $250,000 in cash to give away over eight weeks, had stopped that action.

“I doubt that there is any corporation in the country that has money like that to give away,” said Mr Johnson. “We were concerned that the already competitive Christchurch radio market was going to be confused by what we considered to be false advertising.”

He said he believed Avon’s claims were validated by the fact that 3ZB now said it had thousands of dollars to give away, rather than the $260,000 of the first advertisements.

The programme director for 3ZB, Mr Tony Nielsen, said the advertisement had been changed because lawyers advised them to “play it safe,” not because the claims were deceptive. “Any legal action would be under the new Fair Trading Act and, as this is

completely untested, we were advised that it would be best not to pursue the advertisement.” Mr Nielsen said 3ZB had the claimed amount of money to give away, and would not have embarked on the campaign if it had not.