PM song 'clearly a lampooning satirical piece'

In the video, John Key plays on a Maui's dolphin while an oil rig explodes in the background.

Satirists would be safe from breaching Electoral Commission rules if their work was only for humour and not as an election advertisement, a court has been told.

In the High Court at Wellington today, songwriter Darren Watson and video designer Jeremy Jones are challenging the Electoral Commission's advisory opinion that their song and video Planet Key is an election advertisement.

The music video satirises the Prime Minister and members of the National Government. It features Mr Key playing a guitar solo on an endangered Maui's dolphin while an oil rig explodes in the background.

It also depicts Finance Minister Bill English carrying Mr Key's golf clubs and the Prime Minister playing golf with US President Barack Obama.

Watson and Jones put the song on iTunes and a video website in an attempt to recoup their costs.

The Electoral Commission's lawyer Austin Powell told Justice Denis Clifford satirists were safe if the effects of their satire was just to lampoon.

However, he said no form of artistic expression could get away with being a political advertisement without also including a promoter statement, which provided the name and address of the instigator of the advert.

"You can't carve out exemptions for songs, any more than you can for poems or limericks."

Watson and Jones have denied the song and video were advertisements.

Their lawyer Wendy Aldred said it was a humorous piece performed in a Monty Python style.

No reasonable person could anticipate having their views changed after hearing the song, she said.

The word advertisement was not intended to mean a satirical song written by a professional songwriter. Rather, it was an announcement to the public, she said.

If Watson were to add a promoter's statement, he would have to "sing his name and address" or stop singing and say it, which would be out of character with the blues style, Ms Aldred said.

The hearing continues.