New advertising rules come into effect today for new ads

1 August 2024

Effective today, the new Children’s Advertising Code and Food and Beverage Advertising Code take effect for all new advertising in New Zealand.

• The Food and Beverage Advertising Code extends safeguards to ensure a high standard of social responsibility for food and beverage advertising to consumers, and prevents targeting of occasional food and beverage advertising to children under 16. The new Code strengthens existing restrictions on sponsorship advertisements relating to occasional food and beverage products and includes brand sponsorship advertisements associated with these products. This Code will replace the existing Food and Beverage rules included in the Advertising Standards Code.
• The Children’s Advertising Code replaces the existing Children and Young People’s Advertising Code and provides clear guidelines to ensure advertisements do not encourage unsafe practices, promote bullying, encourage peer pressure or unhealthy body images, or include content that is not age-appropriate for children. The Code extends existing restrictions to ensure a high level of social responsibility in advertising to children under 16 years of age, across advertising in all media platforms.

The new Codes apply to advertising in all media, and take effect for new advertising on 1 August 2024, and for all advertising from 1 November 2024.

We’re here to help.

Make sure you are up to speed with the key changes by accessing our industry support resources.

If you have any questions regarding the new Codes, don’t hesitate to contact us.