The New Zealand Seafood Industry Council has made a complaint to the New Zealand Advertising Standards Authority regarding an advertisement in the Tuesday 25th March Dominion Post.
Council Chief Executive Owen Symmans said today the complaint was made on the grounds that the Council believes the advertisement breaches the New Zealand standards on the basis of truthful representation.
“The advertisement contains several heavily altered photographs, combined in such a way as to make them look like a single image. It is entirely misleading,” said Mr Symmans [see images attached].
He said the detail of the Council’s formal complaint was that the advertisement based on the one image presented was misleading and deceptive or was likely to deceive or mislead, that it made a false and misleading representation, and that it abused the trust of the consumer, exploiting the general public’s lack of experience or knowledge about the issue.
Mr Symmans said the dolphin in the picture appeared to be a beachcast Hector’s dolphin on Banks Peninsula, but the content of the advertisement referred mainly to the critically endangered Maui’s dolphin. Maui’s dolphins are only found on the West Coast of the North Island.
Commercial fishing vessels had been placed into the image by altering the photographs. In the original photograph of the Hector’s dolphin, there were no vessels present.
“I also believe that the advertisement breaches the standards in that the opinion in this advertisement is not clearly distinguishable from factual information,”said Mr Symmans.
Mr Symmans noted that issues surrounding the endangered Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins were serious for all parties involved and debate and discussion was rightfully intense. [See background information attached.]
“That one of the parties to the debate should be creating false and misleading images to support their case is worrying in the extreme and does nothing to contribute to the robust and considered decision-making now required.”
