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Press, 14 February 1986, Page 15

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PA Wellington The head of TVNZ drama, Mr John Mcßae, says it was a coincidence that advertisements for an insurance company followed references to the company in the new series, "Seekers.” In the first segment of the hour-long programme on TVI on Monday evening, one of the key char-

acters asked which company his mother’s insurance policy was with and was told, "N.Z.1.” The second segment of the show had the character, Selwyn Broadhead, leaving an actual New Zealand Insurance office, where he had been to check details of the policy. In each of the following

two commercial breaks there was an advertisement for the company. Mr Mcßae said there was no sponsorship deal involved and no money had changed hands. It was a coincidence. He said it was not unusual for a New Zealand drama to use the name of a real company. When the TVNZ director of marketing, Mr Richard L’Estrange, was asked if someone from his sales division could have previewed the programme and advised the insurance company of its content, Mr L’Estrange said this would not happen, and had never happened, in his memory. “It is not really that there is any ethic to stop it happening, but it is just not something we are coordinated to do,” he said.