With advertisers becoming savvier, it can be increasingly
difficult to establish if something is actually an
ad. The concept of identifying an ad is becoming a key
issue in advertising regulation. The increasing
relevance of this is something that is captured in the New Zealand
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) new
Advertising Standards Code (Code), as well as the
ASA's Guidance Note on the Identification of Advertisements
(Guidance Note).
From 1 February 2019 all ads must comply with the
Code. The Code consolidates six, now retired, codes,
being the Advertising Code of Ethics, Code for Comparative
Advertising, Code for People in Advertising, Code for Advertising
Food, Code for Environmental Claims and Code for Advertising
Vehicles. The concepts that the retired codes were based
on are continued in the new Code, in a slightly different format
and with more detail.
