A poster featuring the Prime Minister's face has been ruled a party advertisement by the Electoral Commission.
Auckland artists Mike Weston and Otis Frizzell created the posters as a way of saying thank you to Jacinda Ardern and her response to Covid-19.
For every poster they sold, they paid a billboard company to feature another somewhere around the country. The poster was featured at about 40 locations.
“This has nothing to do with her party, it’s about her as a person,” Mr Frizzell told 1 NEWS during an interview last month.
But complaints were laid against the artwork, raising questions over whether it was art or political propaganda.
The commission deemed the public artwork as ads for the Labour Party, which under the Electoral Act, require written authorisation of the party.
“We have asked the artists and publishers to come back to us on the steps they will take to comply with the requirements of the Electoral Act,” a representative told 1 NEWS in a statement.
Weston Frizzell are about to release their latest piece of art named “The Jacket Potato” and say they are interested to see if the commission constitutes it as party advertisement.
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