John MacDonald: Don’t blame the Government for advertising spend-up

Yes, there’s been some stupid spending. But I think we’d have more to worry about if there was none, writes John MacDonald. Photo / 123RF

OPINION:

Now before you accuse me, I’m going to stick my hand up and say “yes, my finger is in the pie; yes, my snout is in the trough; and yes, I’m riding the gravy train”.

I think that covers all the things that might get thrown at me for what some people will probably think is my defence of the huge increase in government spending on advertising over the past few years.

The commercial media company I work for benefits from the Government buying ads – which means I benefit from it too. So, there we go, potential conflict of interest taken care of.

And, I tell you what, if you’re not happy about the Government spending more than ever on advertising – we’ve only got ourselves to blame. You’re to blame. I’m to blame.

I’ll get to that. But let’s start with the numbers, as reported by Newstalk ZB today.

In the past five years, advertising spending by public sector and Crown agencies – i.e. the Government – has increased by 122 per cent. So it’s gone from $56 million to $125 million.

Not surprisingly, the biggest jump has been in the past two years. In 2020, the Government spent $97 million on advertising, in the past year it was $125 million.

Why so much more money? Well, the Government is saying it’s been needed to provide essential information about things like Covid-19.

But the National Party isn’t buying that, and is saying a lot of the money spent has nothing to do with Covid and it’s being used to sell government policies like the 3 Waters reforms. Which, by the way, would have to go down as a huge waste of money, wouldn’t it?

Overall, every government department is advertising. ACC, Department of Internal Affairs, Waka Kotahi – the whole lot.

And National thinks it’s time for the Government to rein-in the spending.

There are a whole lot of numbers being thrown around – including $43 million being spent on advertising for the Covid vaccine programme alone.

Newstalk ZB’s deputy political editor Jason Walls says it’s a matter of perception as to whether the money’s being spent on public information or propaganda.

I think it depends on what the advertising is for as to whether it’s propaganda or not. The Three Waters ads were definitely propaganda.

Others might say anything the Government advertises is propaganda in some way, shape or form because anything the Government does has some sort of party ideology behind it.

Especially the current government, which can pretty much do what it wants because of its majority in Parliament.

But I actually think the Government has no option but to buy advertising – which is where our “fault” in all of this comes into it.

These days, we – as a society – question everything. Especially when it comes to politicians.

I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve told me they think TV1 News is just a propaganda machine for the Government. That Jacinda Ardern’s pulling the strings behind the scenes. And on some nights, it does look like that.

And then when a politician gets ripped to shreds during an interview, people love it.

So if you’re the Government, and there’s information you think really needs to get out there, you know from the start that it’s going to be an uphill battle because it’s not the news media’s job to sell government policy. It’s the media’s job to question it.

And so because every one of us questions everything and demands transparency on everything – whether we’re involved in the media or not – we leave the Government with no option but to buy advertising time so it can say what it wants to say – or what it thinks needs to be said.

And that is why we end up in a situation where, as it’s being reported today, government spending on advertising increases 122 per cent over five years.

And I’m okay with that, because if the Government didn’t think it was needed – it would mean that we’ve either fallen asleep or we’re living in some sort of communist state. And last time I checked, neither of those things are true.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that I don’t think any of the Government’s big spend on advertising has been a waste of money.

My pick for the biggest waste of money would be those ridiculous “Road to Zero” road safety ads. I don’t know about you but, whenever I’m driving, there’s nothing in those ads that influence what I do. Nothing.

Another example of wasteful spending, which I mentioned earlier, is the 3 Waters advertising the Government did. I reckon those ads got people’s backs up, more than anything.

So, yes, there’s been some stupid spending. But I think we’d have more to worry about if there was none.