Section 400 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act sets the Regulations regarding the banning or restricting of certain alcohol products.

This allows for the Minister of Justice to ban or restrict a product, its distribution, importation, manufacture or sale, control or prohibit its advertising, display, labelling, packaging or promotion.

This clause was aimed at addressing the issues relating to RTDs in New Zealand, due to increasing evidence and concerns that they were associated with increased drinking and harm among young people, and also the increasing alcohol content of these beverages. The Minister at the time chose not to proceed with plans to restrict the sale of RTD’s above 5%, but to allow the industry to self-regulate their RTD products containing no more than 7% of alcohol or no more than 2 standards drink per container. For more information, please click here.

Alcohol product packaging and labelling

The ASA Alcohol Advertising and Promotion Code also considers alcohol product packaging, naming, and labelling to be alcohol advertisements.

For example, alcohol products shall not use designs, motifs, or cartoon characters that have appeal to minors or that create confusion with confectionery or soft drinks.

Click here for more information on the Code.

The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code also contains guidelines for the Labelling of Alcoholic Beverages (2104).

For example, there are some specific requirements for alcohol labelling including the display of the number of standard drinks on each product. Unlike other beverages (and foods) nutritional information isn’t required for alcohol beverages at this stage.

There was a long standing application (with Food Standards Australia and New Zealand) for alcohol to carry advisory statements (warning labels) recommending drinkers not to consume alcohol if they are pregnant. However, New Zealand (and Australian) Government have long deferred to self-regulation. However in July 2020, after over 20 years of advocacy, NZ and Australian Ministers voted to mandate a strong evidence based pregnancy health warning label on alcohol products (see below).  Visit the Food Standards Australia New Zealand website for technical information.

Please check out the section on Alcohol & Pregnancy for more information,

New Zealand Law Commission 2010

In 2010, the Law Commission reviewed our liquor laws, recommending that a three-stage process be implemented to ultimately lead to alcohol advertising being prohibited.

Only Stage 1 of the recommendations were implemented, through provisions in the Act to address the irresponsible promotion of alcohol (Section 237 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act).

The other two stages, however, were not implemented.

Stage 2 proposed the establishment of an interdepartmental committee overseen by the Ministers of Health and Justice to plan and implement the next phase of a programme to limit exposure to alcohol promotion and restrict the content of alcohol promotion messages.  This committee (The Ministerial Forum on Alcohol Advertising and Sponsorship) was established and produced a report (see below) but the Government has not yet responded.  Further recommendations for stage 2 included:

• Television and Radio watershed hour of 10pm
• No alcohol advertising on public transport or movie theatres
• No alcohol advertising at sports and cultural events or music festivals

Stage 3 of the programme would implement further restrictions:

• No images of drinkers or depictions of drinking atmosphere in advertisements
• Objective product information only to be included in advertisements
• No alcohol-related sponsorship of any cultural or sport events or activities
• Only allowing advertising in press with majority readership over 20 years of age

The Law Commission noted the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990 provides a useful model for controlling advertising and replacing sponsorship.

Ministerial Forum on Alcohol Advertising and Sponsorship 2014

In early 2014, a Ministerial Forum was established to consider whether further restrictions on alcohol advertising and sponsorship were needed in New Zealand to reduce alcohol-related harm.

Following public submissions, the Forum reported its recommendations to the Minister of Justice and the Associate Minister of Health in October of the same year.

Just like the Law Commission did in 2010, the Forum also made strong calls to reduce the harm from advertising and sponsorship. The following steps were recommended in its report:

1. Alcohol advertising, other than that communicating objective product information, should be restricted in all media in New Zealand, including alcohol promotion on the internet and social media sites.
2. All permitted alcohol advertising should be accompanied by health advisory statements. In particular, these health advisory statements should include a warning of the risks associated with consuming alcohol during pregnancy, and drinking by young people.
3. Alcohol sponsorship of sporting and cultural events should be phased out as soon as possible.
4. A portion of the revenue gathered by alcohol excise taxes should be ring-fenced to replace alcohol sponsorship for sport and cultural activities.
5. The self-regulation of alcohol marketing (i.e. ASA) should be replaced with an independent body to manage and enforce the increased restrictions on advertising and sponsorship.

As at December 2020, the report is yet to receive a formal response from any Government. As such, community action is important to enable the above recommendations to be adopted.

Product labelling is another important component of alcohol marketing.

Labels may be used to inform drinkers of the content and nutritional content of their drinks, as well as provide warning about the risks associated with drinking (including during pregnancy).

Currently, alcoholic products are not required to show ingredients or nutritional information. Although there is limited evidence of the effect of mandated health warnings on drinking behaviour,  there is a strong rationale that highly visible, evidence-based alcohol health warnings (similar to tobacco warnings), play an important part in a comprehensive approach to increasing knowledge of harmful effects of drinking and shifting cultural norms and behaviours around drinking.

Health warnings signal the risk of the hazardous commodity and may be viewed as an important component of a comprehensive strategy to reduce alcohol consumption. Recent research has shown that individuals exposed to graphic pictorial health warnings (in comparison to text warnings) had greater intentions to reduce and quit alcohol consumption.   

The three 'best buys' 

The World Health Organization has identified the following policy measures as the three 'best buys' to reduce alcohol harm:

1. Price measures, in particular tax increases
2. Reducing the availability and accessibility of alcohol
3. Restricting alcohol advertising and sponsorship

As shown in the Introduction to this overall section, there is strong evidence relating to the impact of alcohol advertising and alcohol consumption:

• Young people with greater exposure to alcohol marketing are more likely to start drinking and drink heavily
• The association between alcohol marketing and drinking among young people is causal

Public opinion

From 2010-2016, strong public support was found for restricting advertising and sponsorship:

• 80% supported restrictions on alcohol advertising to young people
• 68% support banning alcohol sponsorship of events that young people may attend

During the Law Commission review of the regulatory framework for the sale and supply of liquor, no issue was more hotly contested in consultation meetings and submissions than the issue of alcohol advertising and promotions.  The consensus was that advertising should be more heavily controlled, while sponsorship and promotions associating alcohol with sporting activity were widely deplored.  Almost every submitter to the Law Commission commented on advertising and sponsorship (2281 out of 2939 submissions).  Of those submissions, 86% supported banning or restricting all advertising of all alcohol in all media.

Be observant

Many of our major sporting, entertainment or arts-based events are sponsored by alcohol companies. So too are a number of our top sporting teams, along with individual athletes, performers and artists. This exposes our communities to a large and varied volume of alcohol marketing.

Take action

You can take action to alert the organisers of the event (or the owners of the team) to the harms from alcohol sponsorship.  Start the conversation so that they know people are concerned.

Talk to others to see if they also share concerns about alcohol sponsorship of the event. Is there support for change?  If so, try to mobilise that support into taking collective actions.

This will assist you to engage with those who are decision-makers relating to the event or team. Click here for assistance in mobilising others.  You could consider talking to your elected representatives and other community leaders about the issue.  They may help you to create momentum, have useful advice, or connect you with other concerned community members.

You can talk to the appropriate people individually and/or write a letter to them asking that alcohol sponsorship be reconsidered. Click below for a template of a letter to get you started.

Gather support for action

Be a local influencer – Consider your activities and memberships and how you can help to reduce community exposure to alcohol marketing through these. How far does your influence extend? Also keep a look out for alcohol marketing at school and workplace events – you can take action in these settings too.

Talk to others to see if they also share concerns about alcohol sponsorship at the club. Are their people in your community or organisations who can lead or support change?

Gather support for action. This will assist you to engage with those who are decision-makers at the club. Click here for assistance in mobilising others.

You can talk to the appropriate people individually and/or ask for alcohol sponsorship to be raised at a club meeting.  It may help to have informal discussions with supporters and also club officers so people understand the issues before bringing them to a formal setting.

Write to your local club

You may also choose to write to your local club to request that alcohol sponsorship be reconsidered.

Click below for a letter template to get you started.

In addition, in the case of many sports, you can write to a national or regional body to seek support.

In your letter, you will want to tell them about the impact of alcohol sponsorship on children and young people; see the Background section.

Please also check out the following sections:

PLACES AND EVENTS - ALCOHOL AND SPORTS AND OTHER CLUBS

ALCOHOL LICENSING AND LOCAL ALCOHOL POLICIES - CLUB LICENCE

If there is no existing policy that relates to alcohol advertising and public transport:

Collect evidence on alcohol advertising and public transport in your community. Include this information in an incident log. 

Contact your local council to ask why a policy has not been developed, or whether it is currently being written. Try to find out the key dates regarding the renewal of contracts with transport operators and or advertising agencies – this is an important time to request that the transport agency consider imposing restrictions on alcohol advertising in the relevant contracts.

Highlight the importance of protecting your community from alcohol advertising.  Please check out the section on Mobilising Others - click here for information on how to seek out other interested community members and how to advocate to get your message across.

If there is an existing policy:

What does the policy include or not include? Does it restrict all alcohol advertisements on public transport?

Find out which agency which is responsible for enforcing any policy. Sometimes, it is the responsibility of transport operator or an advertising agency rather than the Council to adhere to and enforce the policy.

- Making a complaint

You can make a complaint if you believe a policy has been breached.

Gather as much information as possible to support your complaint, e.g. time, place, bus route, and details of the alcohol advertisement.

Report the complaint to the group which enforces the policy – this may be the Council, the transport operator, or an advertising agency.  If the complaint is going to a transport operator or advertising agency, you might consider including a local Councillor in the correspondence.

Where to find further information  

Public Transport Agency – raise your concern to the public transport agency in your region so that they can commence investigation. Even if they are not responsible for advertisements on public transport, it is still worthwhile to raise the concern to them because they will have the contract with bus companies.

Link to public transport agencies in major cities:

• Auckland – https://at.govt.nz/bus-train-ferry/
• Wellington – https://www.metlink.org.nz/
• Christchurch – http://www.metroinfo.co.nz/Pages/default.aspx
• Dunedin - http://www.orc.govt.nz/Information-and-Services/Buses/
• NZ Bus – NZ Bus is one of the biggest service providers in New Zealand. http://www.nzbus.co.nz/. 
• Public Health Unit – Your local public health unit may be able to assist you in the process. https://www.health.govt.nz/new-zealand-health-system/key-health-sector-organisations-and-people/public-health-units

The Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 includes a section which addresses irresponsible promotion. This is the main piece of legislation addressing irresponsible promotion of alcohol.

This section (237) of the law addresses advertising and promotion of alcohol which does any of the following:

• encourages people, or is likely to encourage people, to consume alcohol to an excessive extent
• leads people to believe that alcohol is heavily discounted (more than 25%) or free of charge
• offers goods and services, or the opportunity to win a prize, on the condition that alcohol is bought
• aims at, or that has, or is likely to have, special appeal to minors.

This section covers any person, who in the course of carrying on a business promotes alcohol irresponsibly - whether they are an individual, a media company, a licensed premises, an alcohol company, etc.

Complaints in relation to this can be forwarded to the Police.

For more information on Irresponsible Promotion, click here to read the relevant section of this website.