From '100% Pure' to 40% off: NZ's new sales pitch

AUT lecturer Matt Halliday says the new campaign feels like a "one day Briscoes sale". (Image: Supplied)

Tue, 18 Feb 2025

Poet Hera Lindsay Bird once described New Zealand as a “mean-spirited sale at Briscoes racist sexist 40% off deck furniture piss country”, and now Tourism NZ’s latest campaign appears to be inadvertently leaning into that image. At least that is the impression the controversial advertising campaign gives to Matt Halliday, a lecturer in communications studies at AUT who teaches advertising and brand creativity. To him, the advertisement feels like a “big shouty ad” of the kind used to promote a “Bris...

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