KEY POINTS:
Advertising creatives hate to have limits on what they can say.
But many are ambivalent about the ban on the bikini girl Burger King commercials, which they say were an accident waiting to happen.
The ad men say - and men still dominate the industry - that the campaign is a reaction against the politically correct trend facing their craft.
But some agencies are surprised it took so long before it was banned.
"What do you expect when you show commercials on afternoon TV, when children are watching, with three bikini girls in a bed?" said one agency executive.
Y&R, the agency behind the Burger King campaign, plans to appeal bans on two of the three ads in the series.
It will also retain short-term promotions for its Texas Double Whoppers featuring the bikini girls wearing cowboy hats.
Burger King is certainly getting noticed. When you phone head office you are invited to record your views about the ads.
The commercials are aimed at young males and are a counter to the health-conscious family style ads of McDonald's.
But Y&R chief executive Jon Ramage says it has checked the views of older women and found there was no widespread objection from this group.
The Advertising Standards Complaints Board decided in a split decision to clamp down on the commercials' use of sex to sell burgers, but cleared the first of the ads in the series because they are more in context.
Two were found, in the words of the industry code, to have used sexual appeal simply to draw attention to an unrelated product.
But the first ad in the series did not breach rules because the bikini girls were riding horses at the beach, so there was some context.
The industry's self-regulating body, the Advertising Standards Authority, says advertisers are expected to stretch boundaries but the decision against the two ads had drawn a line in the sand.
Industry creatives have grumbled that the complaints board - while more consistent that it has been in the past - had become "politically correct" in its judgments.
Bikini-clad women feature in high-profile campaigns for Tui beer but they have not been banned because liquor ads can be screened only in adult viewing times.
Ads for Fonterra's Primo drink, featuring bikini girls on moon hoppers, have also also passed muster.
But an ad for a Toyota RAV4 has become a cause celebre after the complaints board decided to ban it. It featured a satirical War of The Roses-style fight between a married couple for the keys of a RAV4 - and was criticised for its portrayal of domestic violence.
Toyota agency Saatchi & Saatchi appealed and when the ban was upheld, complained successfully to the courts. It was allowed to screen but only in adult viewing times.
Besieged at lunch
National Party politicians are being besieged by public relations people looking to the prospect that National might soon be back in charge.
Nobody is ruling out a recovery from Labour and Helen Clark but PR people say that even before the latest poll slumps there was a push to get onside with the Nats.
"We are not short of invitations to lunch at the moment," said Murray McCully, a former PR man and spin merchant for National in numerous elections.
The big consultancies have been unfurling the linen napkins for politicians at the best restaurants but so, too, have the in-house corporate PR people who want to get their view across.
McCully says it's not surprising for the PR folk and a useful process for the politicians, who get to find out more about business and industry concerns. The question will be how many are leaving after the main, and how many will linger for the sweet.
Election ad flurry?
Public relations people will be cosying up to the Nats "just in case" they get in, but advertising folk will be wanting to ride the wave of promotions for government department initiatives and giveaways that usually surface in the run to elections.
Labour is a big fan of advertising to get its message across and cynics question the degree that initiatives such as Working for Families last election are aimed at advising the public or eliciting votes.
In fairness, there seems to widespread public ignorance about the details about KiwiSaver.
Saatchi & Saatchi Wellington's campaign for the Government was launched yesterday. The first advertisement informs New Zealanders broadly about KiwiSaver, a second ad running from June 24 targets those starting work or changing jobs and a third will follow in October.
Going Pear-Shaped
TVNZ bosses who watched aghast Rick Ellis' gaffe at Parliament's Maori select committee last week have been given a timely reminder things can go pear-shaped very, very quickly. Ellis' comment that Police Ten-7 delivered on TVNZ's charter obligations was at the end of a 55-minute grilling by the committee and overwhelmed the rest of his more mundane comments.
But the list of TV shows given by an unnamed top executive outside public relations is an example of the pathological under-estimation of Wellington politics that has cost Auckland-focused TVNZ dearly in the past.
It is no secret inside TVNZ that Helen Clark's office was pleased to see Ellis exit three years ago and is not overly enthusiastic that he is now back in charge.
TVNZ is active in three areas around the argument about Maori content.
The first area is Maori language shows such as Te Karere which screens at 4.40pm and has no commercial focus and is there to please government departments and tick off Treaty of Waitangi obligations.
The second is English-language shows about Maori issues such as Marae which are often well made and useful, but of limited commercial value and which are universally shown at appalling timeslots where few people know they exit.
And the third area includes the shows that featured on Ellis' list that range from Shortland Street - which has several Maori themes and characters - and shows that simply have a few brown faces in them.
Ellis' list ignored two shows that are big raters and make a huge impact on New Zealand TV.
Eye To Eye with Willie Jackson provides the smartest political debate on television and ensures a Maori perspective, and The World According to Willie and JT - which features two of the best television talents around - Jackson and John Tamihere.
