The Advertising Standards Authority will not act on a complaint about Family First's "21 great reasons to keep marriage as is" brochure because it's an expression of opinion. A complainant said the pamphlet's "extraordinarily offensive" as it equates same-sex marriage with paedophilia and incest; denigrates children of same-sex couples and advocates for the need for children to have “a mother and a father” which was hurtful to children of single-parent and same-sex families. The complainant also said the brochure was inflammatory, largely incorrect and was filled with biases. However the Advertising Standards Authority says the brochure is an advocacy advertisement of a religious nature which presents a point of view from a particular organisation which, in this case, advocates against the Marriage Amendment Bill that's currently before Parliament. Its Chairman "acknowledged the sincere concerns" of the person who complained, but says the law allows for robust expression of belief or opinion in ads, irrespective of the message.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 13th April 2013 - 2:29pm