Frequently Asked Questions

The ASA is the organisation that sets the standards for responsible advertising in New Zealand. The ASA provides education and training and manages the complaints process. Member organisations of the ASA include industry associations, advertisers, agencies and media companies.

The Advertising Codes set the standards for responsible advertising. They cover truthful presentation and matters of social responsibility. There are specialist codes for advertising to children and for categories including food and beverage, alcohol, financial advertising, gambling and therapeutic and health advertising.

No. The Advertising Standards Authority is an industry organisation. It is supported by advertisers, advertising agencies and media companies to maintain standards in advertising. The Advertising Codes set out the rules that advertisements are to comply with to ensure they are responsible.

Self-regulation encourages the industry to take responsibility to ensure decent, honest and truthful advertising communications to consumers. Most advertisers do not want to deliberately mislead or offend current or potential customers. They understand the importance of responsible advertising and engage with pre-vetting processes and code-compliance prior to the release or publication of advertising. If consumers trust advertising, it is more effective. Advertising self-regulation also works best alongside a legislative framework. There are dozens of different pieces of legislation covering advertising content or placement in New Zealand.

The Advertising Standards Authority deals with complaints about advertising in any media. The Broadcasting Standards Authority deals with complaints about programme content broadcast on radio or television, including programme promotions. The Media Council’s jurisdiction includes editorial content in magazines, newspapers, periodicals in circulation in New Zealand, including their websites, major broadcaster’s online news content and digital news content from Media Council member platforms.

The ASA’s definition of “advertising and advertisement” means any message, the content of which is controlled directly or indirectly by the advertiser, expressed in any language and communicated in any medium with the intent to influence the choice, opinion or behaviour of those to whom it is addressed.

This is a broad definition and it covers advertisements placed across a wide range of media platforms.

The ASA has a Codes Committee that develops the Codes. This expert committee is made up of public and industry representatives and the Codes are approved by the ASA Governance Board. During the development or review of a Code, the committee may consult with relevant sectors, consumers and technical experts when required.

The Association of New Zealand Advertisers supports independent adjudicators to provide expert pre-vetting for certain advertising categories. It is a user-pays service. More information is available on the ANZA website.

Many ads are checked prior to being seen by consumers. The process to approve an advertisement differs between advertisers, product categories and media companies. Many larger advertisers have internal pre-vetting processes including regulatory checks and legal advice. Media companies also have their own terms and conditions and guidelines on what they will and will not publish or broadcast. The Commercial Approvals Bureau reviews and approves all ads screened on linear television in New Zealand.

Some industry organisations also have advertising rules for their members to follow. Examples include Medicines New Zealand, Self-Medication Industry, Pharmacy Guild, Cosmetics New Zealand, Medical Council of New Zealand and the International Code for Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes in New Zealand.

Anyone can complain about any advertisement that is targeting New Zealanders.

Complaints made by consumers are considered through our free consumer complaints process. Complaints made by an advertiser regarding a competitor to their own products are subject to a fee and considered through a separate competitor complaints process.

The ASA may decline to accept a complaint if the matter is outside our jurisdiction. More information on our jurisdiction and scope is available here.

In the consumer process, complainants are not expected to defend their complaint against the advertiser in any way. The onus is on the advertiser to provide evidence that their ad is compliant.

Some complaints are dealt with in a few days. Complaints that go to the Complaints Board can take two to three weeks. Detailed or complex complaints may take longer. The Complaints Board meets fortnightly to rule on complaints but can also meet at short notice if required.

One complaint can stop an advertisement but as a matter of natural justice, before this decision is made, if the Chair rules there is a case to answer, the advertiser, the advertising agency and the relevant media companies are given seven calendar days to respond to a complaint.

If the complaint is upheld by the Complaints Board, we request the advertisement be removed/changed and the compliance rate with these requests is 96%-99%.

The ASA Complaints Board makes decisions about complaints following responses from parties. The nine-member Complaints Board has five public and four industry representatives and meets fortnightly. The average time to deal with complaints is about nine days. This statistic includes complaints that take less time to process, such as no further action and settled decisions, while cases that go before the Complaints Board can take longer. Decisions may be appealed and if there are grounds for an appeal, the Appeal Board will re-consider the complaint. The Appeal Board has three members, two public and one industry and meets on demand.

No further action: This means the Chair of the Complaints Board has reviewed the complaint and has ruled a Code has not been breached, and no further action is required. This outcome may occur when a complaint is about an extreme interpretation, is trivial or vexatious, or if there is a precedent decision that relates to the same or similar advertising.

Upheld: This means the Complaints Board agreed with the issues raised by the complainant and the advertiser is asked to amend or remove the advertisement. The media platforms where the ad appears will also be requested to remove the advertisement.

Settled: When an advertiser either withdraws an advertisement or makes immediate changes (that the Chair considers satisfactory) to address the issues raised by the complainant, the complaint can be settled by the Chair.

Not upheld: This means the Complaints Board found the advertisement did not breach the Advertising Codes in relation to the complainant’s concerns.

No jurisdiction: Sometimes a complaint is outside the jurisdiction of the ASA. The ASA deals with complaints about advertisements that target NZ audiences. Highly technical complaints, matters of law or complaints about advertisements from outside of NZ, which are not targeting NZ consumers, are among advertising that is outside the ASA’s jurisdiction.

If an advertisement is found to be in breach of the ASA Codes, it must be removed or amended. This request is made to the advertiser, agency and media companies when they receive the decision. There is an excellent rate of compliance for this process that is essentially voluntary. In addition, all decisions are released to the media and often receive publicity. This reputational risk for advertisers is also a driver for compliance.

The work of the ASA is complementary to legislation. If a regulatory authority considers there has been a serious breach, then there are several Government agencies that could prosecute such a case, including the Commerce Commission, Medsafe, the Department of Internal Affairs, the Police, and the Financial Markets Authority.

The ASA has a database of decisions on its website. Parties to a complaint will receive a copy of the decision and be given a date that the decision will be available on the ASA website. Interested parties can subscribe to the ASA’s monthly Decisions Release email to be notified of the latest decisions.

The ASA runs a voluntary process which deals with complaints about advertising in very short timeframes. If the advertisement is in breach of the Advertising Codes, it is removed or changed. This can be a considerable cost to the advertiser, depending on the type of advertisement or campaign. In addition, all the decisions are released to the public and media via the ASA website and are often reported on. This can result in a reputational risk for the company.

If the ASA had the ability to enforce a fine, our process would have to be more legalistic, and it would take longer. Ad campaigns are often short and action to address any concerns is needed quickly.

Government regulators can prosecute advertisers for misleading and deceptive conduct. These include the Commerce Commission, the Department of Internal Affairs, the Financial Markets Authority, the Ministry for Primary Industries, the Police and Medsafe.

Most advertisers support self-regulation and responsible advertising and don’t deliberately mislead or offend consumers. However, advertising is a creative business and does push boundaries from time to time. If the advertiser pushes too far and a complaint is upheld almost all advertisers will remove or change the advertisement.

The ASA may also refer the issue to a relevant industry organisation to request their assistance. In some cases, referral to the relevant regulator or local council may be considered.

Media coverage of decisions can also assist with compliance, along with consumer decisions not to engage with the relevant brand or company.

All complaints must be received using our online complaints form, via email or via post. Our process requires that we deal with the consumer’s concerns in their own words. Complaints can be emailed to asa@asa.co.nz or posted to PO Box 10675, Wellington 6140.

The Advertising Standards Complaints Board does not accept anonymous complaints, in part to ensure the consumer complaints process is not held up by anonymous competitor complaints.

For decisions after March 2020 the complainant’s name and contact details are not recorded in the decisions and rulings of the Complaints Board and the Complaints Appeal Board. If the complaint is on behalf of an organisation the name of the organisation will be recorded in the decision.

Please note as part of the complaints process, an original copy of your complaint excluding your name and contact details will be forwarded to the advertiser, and any other party to the complaint, for them to respond formally to your complaint. Parties are not able to contact complainants directly and must address all correspondence relating to the complaint to the ASA.

See our privacy policy for more details on the collection and use of your personal information.

When you make a complaint to the ASA you sign a waiver agreeing not to take your complaint to another forum. This prevents complainants from ‘shopping around’ to obtain decisions from different jurisdictions. As we expect the advertiser to engage with our process and take it seriously, we have the same requirement of complainants.

A Complaints Board decision can be appealed if your issue with the decision meets certain criteria. Full details on the appeal process are available from the ASA or on our website.

All parties associated with an advertisement are expected to respond to the ASA following a complaint. This means the advertiser and may also include the agency and the relevant media companies where the advertisement was placed.

The complaints team can discuss short extensions to deadlines to respond to a complaint. If a party requests a longer extension, the Chair will rule on whether there were reasonable grounds. A longer extension is more likely to be granted if the advertising is no longer being published / broadcast.