- watchdog
Awatchdog has upheld complaints about two television ads for the Department of Corrections because the advertisements are "likely to be offensive and harmful".
The first recruitment ad for Corrections included a young Māori boy speaking to the camera about how he "already knew dad went to prison". The boy, referring to a Corrections officer, goes on to say it was "all thanks to him that dad's got a good job now and so, yeah, [I] might become a Corrections officer one day too".
A second complained-about ad showed 'Mike', a Pākehā Corrections officer and 'John', a Māori ex-prisoner. The ad depicts a flashback of John being an aggressive inmate, before showing him rehabilitated.
The ad then shows the pair bumping into each other years later, with both men explaining to John's child how they "worked together" - with Mike saying: "Your dad's a good man, you're a lucky kid."
Link to article: Corrections' recruitment ads give 'harmful' stereotypes of Māori, Pasifika - watchdog (msn.com)
