Cucumber billboard ruled too offensive in New Zealand

Sunday, 5 August 2007
Cucumber billboard ruled too offensive

A billboard advertisement picturing two tomatoes at the base of a cucumber next to the words "thank God for serious steak", has been ruled too offensive.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) agreed with a complaint that the billboard picture, on Christchurch's Durham St, had an "obvious sexual link".

The complainant, H Hellewell, said she appreciated clean and humorous billboard advertising, but the billboard promoting the MU Steak House and Bar was "completely inappropriate and offensive".

"I know a lot of my friends and family find this ad distasteful and wonder how many letters of complaint we should send to aid its rapid removal," she said in a letter to the ASA.

The agency that created the ad, Urlwin, McDonald and Clients Ltd, said in response it was disappointed the complainant failed to see the point of it.

It was not intended to shock or offend, but to relate to the steak house's target meat eaters in a "humorous and effective" way.

The majority of the ASA's complaints board agreed the billboard had not been prepared with a due sense of social responsibility to consumers and society.

A minority of the board believed it did not breach social responsibility standards, but the majority view meant the complaint was upheld.