At one point, the camera focused on director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, standing behind Ardern. ESR chief executive Peter Lennox also featured.
Ardern did not mention the Labour Party or the election in the video.
Act leader David Seymour and National Party campaign chair Gerry Brownlee cried foul, calling it a vote-grabbing ploy in the lead-up to the October 17 election. They said the appearance of Bloomfield, in particular, was effectively using a civil servant for electioneering.
Ardern called it "just me doing my job". However, the video was removed because, Ardern said, "we don't want to lead to any questions of there being any compromised position of anyone in any way".
Seymour and Brownlee's spluttering outrage likely meant more people sought out the video, thus increasing the amount of potential voters being impressed by it.
Also in election advertising news his week, one of the fringe parties was ordered to take a political video off social media which claimed Labour will force New Zealanders to be vaccinated. This - a clear-cut example of shabby electioneering practice - is where attempted deception is easier to discern.
There are many prescriptive rules around what registered political parties can and can't do in the advertising realm. Unfortunately, the rules can be pushed, prodded and tugged to evade prosecution - particularly on social media platforms.
Ultimately, it falls to us to decide how much gravitas to give to a newsfeed clip. Are we really so unsophisticated as to be swayed into ticking another box by a party leader visiting some office workers?
When asked about his view on the Labour video, Bloomfield could only offer the wry observation "the ad went up, and it's now come down".
You can expect more to do so over coming weeks. Watch this space.
