Vodafone NZ to draw up ethical advertising policy in wake of Magic Talk debacle
Thursday, 28 January 2021
Vodafone NZ is drawing up an “ethical advertising policy” that will determine how it spends its advertising dollars in the wake of outrage over racist views expressed on MediaWorks’ Magic Talk radio station.
The move appears the first indication that the Magic Talk debacle could have an impact on the relationship between advertisers and the media that goes beyond MediaWorks.
Vodafone, Spark and Kiwibank announced on Wednesday they were pulling advertising from Magic Talk after it aired racists comments from a caller on Tuesday that were endorsed by host John Banks.
A caller said Māori culture was from “the Stone Age”, and made other offensive comments linking genetics to crime and education.
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Banks later apologised but did not challenge the caller at the time, instead telling him “your children need to get used to their Stone Age culture, because if their Stone Age culture doesn’t change, these people will come through your bathroom window”.
A spokeswoman for the Broadcasting Standards Authority said 23 of the 135 formal complaints it received in 2020 involved talkback radio.
“Last year, we highlighted the diversity of views expressed on talkback radio as one of the issues of complexity dealt with by the authority,” she said.
Telecommunications companies including Vodafone, Spark, 2degrees and Vocus have been in the vanguard promoting “inclusiveness” within their businesses in recent years.
Vodafone spokeswoman Nicky Preston said the Magic Talk incident had prompted its wider review of its advertising policies.
The company said in a Facebook post that it would be “undertaking a full audit of our advertising and developing an ethical advertising policy, which we’ll share soon”.
“We are clear in our commitment to honouring the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, which means developing meaningful, enduring and mutually beneficial relationships with Māori as tangata whenua,” it said.
Preston said Vodafone NZ had been pleased with MediaWorks’ response to the incident, which included taking Banks off-air.
“They have been very quick to respond.”
But Vodafone wasn’t planning on “un-suspending” advertising from Magic Talk any time soon, she said.
MediaWorks said on Wednesday it recognised the comments that aired on Tuesday were hurtful and said that John Banks had “unreservedly apologised” on air for them.
Banks appeared to indicate in that broadcast statement that he had been distracted and had not picked up on the caller’s racist comments at the time they were made.
He said he himself had made some “generic negative statements about Māori people and practices that could be misconstrued as racist” for which he apologised.
Comment was sought from MediaWorks on whether it was satisfied with that statement.
MediaWorks forwarded a statement that chief executive Cam Wallace sent to staff, in which he stated “John Banks will no longer have a position on air or otherwise while I am CEO of MediaWorks”.
”I’m confident this is an isolated incident because I know the culture here at MediaWorks is inclusive and accepting – and know that will continue moving forward,” he also told staff in the note.
New Zealand Cricket, which has a partnership with Magic Talk, has said it was “disgusted and appalled by [the] indefensibly racist exchange between a talkback caller and host John Banks”.
”Should strong action not be taken NZC reserves its right to review its relationship with Magic Talk,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.
A spokesman for NZ Cricket said on Thursday morning that it was awaiting a response from Magic Talk “so that’s our only comment at this stage”.