The New Zealand Outdoors & Freedom Party is calling on the Government to immediately end New Zealand’s status as a dangerous international anomaly by enacting a total statutory ban on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising (DTCA) of prescription medicines across all domestic media platforms.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The call comes as the Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. David Seymour, has agreed to formally present the petition of Aly Cook to the House of Representatives during the parliamentary session on Tuesday, 23 June 2026.
The petition, brought forward by Outdoors & Freedom Party Board Member and Broadcasting Spokesperson Aly Cook, demands that the House of Representatives ban all advertising by pharmaceutical companies and of any pharmaceuticals on all forms of New Zealand media, including television, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, and digital platforms.
New Zealand and the United States remain the only two high-income nations in the world that allow multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical corporations to market branded prescription drugs directly to the public.
"Medical choices must be guided by objective health professionals providing genuine informed consent based on patient need, not by slick, emotionally manipulative commercial marketing campaigns," says petitioner Aly Cook. "Prescriptions belong in clinics, not in commercials."
Council of Medical Colleges Evidence
The Outdoors & Freedom Party's submission weaves in written evidence from the Council of Medical Colleges (CMC), which represents all 17 medical colleges and more than 9,000 practitioners in New Zealand.
The submission directly quotes the CMC’s March 2023 written submission to the Health Select Committee on the Therapeutic Products Bill, which warned Parliament that pharmaceutical advertisements present a "biased, overly optimistic picture of advertised medicines and prompt patients to request treatments they do not need," highlighting that these tactics target vulnerable patients and lead directly to "inappropriate prescribing and overtreatment."
"Our overstretched front-line medical workforce is facing severe burnout, yet we are allowing corporate marketing to deliberately waste their time," Cook states.
"Data from the CMC’s July 2023 historic Open Letter, which was co-signed by Sir Ashley Bloomfield and former Prime Minister Helen Clark, shows that banning direct-to-consumer drug ads would instantly free up our medical professionals by an estimated 48,000 hours a year. Those are precious clinical hours currently wasted dealing with commercial queries that would be much better spent helping sick Kiwis get better."
Media Independence Concerns
As the Party's Broadcasting Spokesperson, Cook also highlights what she describes as a conflict of interest within the New Zealand media landscape, pointing to the tens of millions of dollars in pharmaceutical advertising revenue flowing into domestic media companies annually.
"We must look at who is paying the bills," Cook states.
"When mainstream media outlets rely heavily on corporate pharmaceutical revenue to survive, it introduces an unavoidable conflict of interest. As the medical colleges noted in their March 2023 brief, our healthcare environment shouldn't be controlled by those who manufacture the medications. A media ecosystem financially dependent on Big Pharma cannot serve as an objective watchdog for the public. To safeguard true media independence, we must remove this financial lever."
Public Health Education Versus Commercial Marketing
The submission draws a distinction between public health messaging and commercial pharmaceutical advertising, citing Official Information Act data revealing that the New Zealand Government spent more than $45 million on the COVID-19 vaccine advertising campaign between 2021 and 2022.
"While public agencies must have channels to broadcast emergency safety data, allowing private corporations to buy up the exact same prime-time slots commercialises medicine and floods the public square with competing corporate interests trying to monetize public health anxieties," says Cook.
International Momentum Building
The Party points to developments in the United States to support its case.
According to the release, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have launched a crackdown on deceptive pharmaceutical advertising while new legislation, the End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act (Senate Bill 2068), has been introduced to prohibit the practice entirely.
The legislation was introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont alongside Senator Angus King of Maine.
When introducing the legislation, Senator Sanders highlighted that the United States and New Zealand remain the only developed nations allowing direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines.
"The consensus across doctors, health professionals, and consumer advocates is absolute, and as CMC Chair Dr Samantha Murton summarized perfectly in her July 2023 declaration: 'New Zealand doesn't need to better regulate DTCA, we need to ban it.'"
"If the United States, the global epicenter of commercial pharmaceutical marketing, is actively shutting down this 'pipeline of deception' because of its destructive impact on public health, this leaves New Zealand on track to become the only developed nation in the world that still permits Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising. Time to change that!" Cook concludes.
Parliamentary Process
Following formal presentation by Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour on Tuesday 23 June, the petition will be referred to a parliamentary select committee for consideration.
Cook has indicated she intends to appear before the committee in person to present supporting evidence and argue the case for a complete ban on pharmaceutical advertising across New Zealand media.
Media Contact
Aly Cook
Board Member & Broadcasting Spokesperson / Petitioner
New Zealand Outdoors & Freedom Party
Email: alycookpr@gmail.com
Phone: 027 556 6113
Website: www.nzofp.co.nz
Notes
Petition:
Petition of Aly Cook: Ban all advertising by pharmaceutical companies and of any pharmaceuticals on any New Zealand media.
Key Evidence Filed:
Council of Medical Colleges (CMC) written submission to the Health Committee (5 March 2023) and multi-organisational Open Letter (14 July 2023), including estimates of a 48,000-hour annual impact on general practitioner workloads.
United States Developments:
References ongoing FDA/HHS actions relating to pharmaceutical advertising and the End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act currently before the 119th United States Congress.