Click on the following to take action on alcohol sponsorship in or concerning:

If you have concerns about alcohol sponsorship within a sports or other club, please also read the section Alcohol and Sports and other clubs.

Remember that the ASA Code for Advertising and Promotion of Alcohol (Principle 4) states that sponsorship should not be undertaken for events where minors (<18 years) are likely to comprise more than 25% of the participants, or spectators. Check to see if this is the case at the club you are concerned about.

Contact your local council to find out if there is a policy concerning alcohol advertising on, or around, public transport.

Public transport advertising policies

Many young people use public transport to go about their day-to-day lives. It is important that public transport train stations, bus stops, and vehicles are free from alcohol advertising.

Different agencies (e.g. within Council or Transport) may be responsible for developing and enforcing an alcohol advertising policy on public transport. It is best to check with your local Council.

It may be likely that any alcohol advertising policy cannot be included in public transport contracts until they come up for renewal. If this is the case, you can always encourage the bus, etc companies to implement the policy earlier.

Alcohol advertising on public transport

Advertising on public transport is a form of location-based outdoor promotion, alongside bus shelters, benches and kiosks.

Similar to other forms of outdoor alcohol advertising, there is a lack of research specifically looking at the impact of alcohol advertising on public transport.³⁹

That said, the impact of alcohol advertising on public transport is still likely to be important, given that many people may be exposed to this form of alcohol advertising on a regular basis.

There is no reason to believe that the negative impact of exposure to alcohol advertising on buses, bus shelters, trains, etc is any different to other forms of alcohol advertising.

Click here to go to the Reference list

Does your Council have a signage bylaw?

Check to see if your Council has a signage bylaw. To find the website of your Local Council, please click here.

Make a complaint if you feel there is a breach of a bylaw

If your Council does have a bylaw, you can proceed to make a complaint.

Record the details of the outdoor advertisement - you can keep all signage-related incidents in a log. We have created one for you below.

After collecting relevant evidence, raise your concern with the Licensing Unit of your local Council, as they are responsible for enforcing any bylaw.

If your Council does not have a signage bylaw

If your Council does not have a bylaw, encourage your Council to develop one, please check out the section on alcohol in public places.

Record the details of the advertisement you are concerned about.  You can download an incident log (above) to record your problem.

Contact your local council to ask why a bylaw has not been developed, or whether it is currently being written.

You can highlight the importance of a signage bylaw in your community:

• complete a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, please click here;
• Raise community awareness of the harms from alcohol advertising, please check out the sections on seeking others in the community who are interested and get your message across (advocate);
• Write a letter to your local or community board to raise your concern, please download the template below:

Seeking to have conditions on a licensed premise during alcohol licensing application process

If you consider to make an objection or request for conditions on a licensed premise, you may include a condition of removing signage and advertising of alcohol outside the premise.

Similar to making complaint on non-compliant signage, record the details of the outdoor advertisement – you can keep all signage-related incidents in a log. We have created one for you below.

Make it clear in your object letter that this is the case and what condition you would prefer, here are some examples:

• External advertising of alcohol is limited to no more than 50% of the shop frontage window area.
• Advertising will be limited to the trading name of the premises and two poster type displays on the shop frontage smaller than A1 size.
• There will be no external free-standing advertising signs.

Please visit the section on Alcohol Licensing to learn more about objecting to a liquor licence application.

Council Signage Bylaws

Each local Council may have their own signage bylaw(s) to control forms of advertising. For example, Auckland Council’s signage bylaw provides the following rules for placing sandwich board advertisements:

• Sandwich boards must not be placed on any road or verge unless this is directly outside the store;
• Only one board is allowed per store; and
• Boards must be 'waist height' and the width of your arm (or 1.2m high and 0.6m wide).

Signage rules apply to all retail outlets, including licensed premises.

Placing conditions relating to external signage and advertising of alcohol on a licensed premises

During the renewal of the licensed premise, you may consider to request that the District Licensing Committee place conditions on a licensed premises such as removing all external signage and advertising of alcohol.

Sometimes it can be difficult to have conditions imposed on the licence – but this doesn’t mean that you can’t discuss these with the applicant and encourage them to sign an undertaking. An undertaking is a formal written statement (can even be in an email) that the applicant promises to adhere to certain requirements.

Please visit the next section if you are considering to TAKE ACTION

Please visit the section on Alcohol Licensing to learn more about objecting to a liquor licence application.

Alcohol signage outside liquor stores

Alcohol signage outside licensed premises is a form of location-based outdoor promotion. Compared to mainstream forms of alcohol advertising, there is less research in relation to alcohol advertising outside alcohol retail outlets.

One study, which looked at all of the studies on this topic, found that greater exposure to outdoor advertising was related to higher uptake of drinking among adolescents.³⁸

Click here to go to the Reference list

The action areas below require quite a bit of energy and resource. We suggest you connect with others for support and advice.

• Form or join a coalition or advocacy group, please click here.  
• Organise or support an Advocacy Day or special event – examples include
  • FAS Day to find out more:
    • Please visit Alcohol & Pregnancy Section 
    • Please visit  Fetal Alcohol Network NZ 
  • CASE STUDY: Manukau Alcohol Action Group - “Our Turn to Shout” (yet to be developed)
• Organise a flash mob e.g. Pregnant Pause – A fun way to draw attention to an issue and support action or increase awareness.
• Organise a Press Conference – If there is something important happening in your community a press conference can be a way to leverage off this to gain wider interest/support.