How we assess commercials
We assess every concept, script or finished commercial against both the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA’s) Advertising Codes of Practice and the television broadcasters’ own specific term, conditions and rules.
ASA Codes of Practice
The Codes are developed by the ASA Codes Committee, which includes advertiser, agency, media and public representatives, and in consultation with industry and public sectors. Codes are reviewed every five years or earlier if a need arises.
The advertising codes consist of the Advertising Standards Code and the five sector Codes where advertisers are expected to take particular care; Alcohol, Children and Young People, Finance, Therapeutic and Health, and Gambling.
In interpreting the Codes, emphasis will be placed on compliance with both the principles and the spirit and intention.
The function of the Codes is to complement, not to replace, the laws of the land.
CAB House Rules
In addition to the ASA’s Codes, the broadcasters have adopted a number of voluntarily policies and rules specifically for their medium. These cover everything from advertising adult services to advertising soft drinks to kids.
To make it easier for you to understand the various rules, we publish a list of what we call the CAB House Rules. While this list is primarily an internal document, we make it available to agencies and advertisers as it contains practical advice on everything from which swear words are currently acceptable to using firearms as props in commercials.
Click here to view the Current CAB House Rules.
Key numbers
New Zealand broadcasters may reject advertising key numbers that do not comply with the agreed industry standard. This standard exists to ensure key numbers are compatible with broadcasters’ playout and logging systems.
Key numbers should:
Contain no more than 12 alphanumeric characters
(Underscores, spaces, slashes, and hyphens are ignored)
Follow the advertiser–duration–unique reference format
(e.g. ABC 030 001 or ABC 015 002).
This format ensures that the advertiser and duration are easily identifiable, and that no two commercials from the same advertiser share the same final four digits.
The “R” suffix (e.g. ABC0300001R) should only be used to indicate a technical amendment. Any change to the actual content of a commercial requires a new unique reference number.
