The Advertising Standards Authority has thrown out a complaint about a man's wife not being able to understand an ad because it was in Te Reo.
The Ministry of Health advert encourages people to get their COVID-19 booster vaccines. But it didn't go down well with one man who complained that his wife Mildred couldn't understand it because it was in Te Reo.
"Majority of the add (sic) is in Te Reo and my wife Mildred could not understand the Ministry's message about the booster," the man wrote in his complaint.
"At one stage she thought the topic was plants and not COVID-19. I had to correct her saying kura meant apartment not plant. Do you know why the ad is mostly in Te Reo which people such as my wife cannot understand?"
The man said the ad breached the following principles:
- Principle 2: Truthful Presentation: Advertisements must be truthful, balanced and not misleading.
- Rule 2(b) Truthful Presentation: Advertisements must not mislead or be likely to mislead, deceive or confuse consumers, abuse their trust or exploit their lack of knowledge. This includes by implication, inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, unrealistic claim, omission, false representation or otherwise. Obvious hyperbole identifiable as such is not considered to be misleading.
- Rule 2(e) Advocacy advertising: Advocacy advertising must clearly state the identity and position of the advertiser. Opinion in support of the advertiser's position must be clearly distinguishable from factual information. Factual information must be able to be substantiated.
In her decision released on Thursday, ASA complaints board chair Raewyn Anderson said she carefully reviewed the complaint but found there were no grounds to proceed.
Anderson said concern about the use of Te Reo Māori in an advertisement had been raised in a previous case where the authority also ruled there were no grounds to proceed.
"Te Reo Māori is an official language of New Zealand and the advertisement included a full English translation, in the form of sub-titles," she said in her decision.
Anderson said while a number of words in te reo Māori were used in the ad, the main message was also conveyed in English: "Now is a great time to get your booster ... If your kura aged tamariki are yet to be vaccinated bring them along so you can all get boosted together...".
She also noted the following Te Reo Māori words were included in the advertisement: "whare" which is house, "hapori" which is community, "hōhipera" which is hospital, "kura" which is school, "tamariki" which is children and "E te whānau" which means to everyone.
Anderson said while the Te Reo Māori words used in the advertisement might not have been understood by all viewers the overall message of the advertisement was clear and the advertisement did not reach the threshold to be misleading. Anderson said the advertisement was not in breach of Principle 2, Rule 2(b) or Rule 2(e) of the Advertising Standards Code.
She ruled there were no grounds to proceed with the complaint.
