The Advertising Standards Board has said it will “most likely” not consider complaints about advertisements related to the same-sex marriage plebiscite.

On the board’s blog, the watchdog wrote: “It is likely that most advertisements discussing or advocating the respective ‘yes’ or ‘no’ cases or participation or otherwise in the survey will be considered to be political advertising. Political advertising is not considered by the Advertising Standards Board under section 2 of the AANA Code of Ethics.”

The board explained that self-regulation in the industry was established to cover commercial communications, not political messages.

“The advertising self-regulation system was established as an industry initiative with the objective of regulating commercial communications, not advertisements containing political claims aimed at influencing the political process,” the board said.

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“It is important to the ad board’s integrity that it is seen as an impartial adjudicator, free from perceptions of political bias.”

It noted that ruling on complaints about election advertising could be “regarded as unduly restricting the implied constitutional freedom of political communication or interfering with the political process”.

“In the view of the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB), it is not possible to make decisions about whether a political or election advertisement breaches the Code without the potential for being seen to be taking a political viewpoint.”

However, if ads relating to same-sex marriage are deemed as informational or education rather than political, the watchdog will consider the complaints on a case-by-case basis.

The standards board noted all ads, whether political or not, should adhere to and respect community standards around acceptability of advertising.

Therefore, the ads should not discriminate against or vilify a person of the community due to “race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, sexual preference, religion, disability, mental illness or political belief”.