frogblog

Last week, the Greens’ launched, in conjunction with our environment policy, a series of ads highlighting the fact that only 5 percent of New Zealand’s lowland rivers are safe for drinking and swimming in.

The posters were a parody of Tourism New Zealand’s 100% Pure campaign, and had the headline 5% Pure. However, it’s fair to say that Tourism NZ wasn’t happy about the parody and pressured us to change it. The Herald has the story:

But Tourism NZ decided the ads were too similar and paid a visit to the Greens on Monday to request that they change them.

Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said Tourism NZ “very strongly pressured” the Greens to alter the ad.

“Their primary concern was loss of control over their trademark.

“Apparently if they are seen to accept one person using their trademark, then they can’t stop other people doing it.”

The Greens relented and made small changes - namely to the font of the word “Pure” and shape of the per cent sign, so that the 100 per cent Pure trademark was not breached.

“We don’t want a big scrap about trademarks,” said Ms Fitzsimons. “We want to have a scrap about why so little is being done to clean up our rivers.”

If you want to see the two ads side-by-side, before and after the changes, the Herald has published both versions. Obviously, we can’t do so here without risking another telling-off from Tourism New Zealand. The image above is an after-the-changes version.

Bookmark to: