ASB in trouble with Advertising Standards Authority

ASB has recently launched a new ad campaign that is very questionable .

The Advertising Standards Authority was contacted to file a complaint and I was told that they were receiving lots of complaints. The issue is a moral/social one whereas ASB probably thought they were doing a "warm fuzzy". Crux of ad: couple can't conceive and get a loan from ASB to do pay for IVF treatments.

This seems to be an ad that was designed to generate sympathy for an unfortunate group of people who have trouble with conception. Unfortunately their inability to afford IVF and the need to take a loan for these purposes is an extremely dangerous social concept to be selling. If potential parents can't afford IVF how are they going to afford to have a child? There is no caveat that says that one needs a house or any collateral. What's the collateral? The child?

Loans are good things to help people afford to buy houses and businesses to grow. Putting people (who obviously can't afford IVF) into debt is not a very productive approach in an era when people are being asked to increase savings. This ad was not thought out and sends a very damaging picture: "don't think about the consequences of your actions, just go into debt for what you want now". Or alternatively: "It's OK to go into debt to have kids". How is this acceptable?

It costs around $400,000 to raise a child, this obviously takes being frugal and saving. Starting off with a debt to pay off is hardly the road towards doing this job right and could seriously undermine a couple's ability to climb out of debt/poverty. Making a loan available to people who are emotionally desperate and possibly not thinking about the financial consequences, is not necessarily a kindness and could be seen in retrospect as cynical. It is fairly obvious that the TV couple couldn't save enough for the treatment on their current income. With a child how will they afford the money they couldn't save for, plus interest, plus the cost of raising the child?