Kiwi Controversy

NZ City of New Zealand is reeporting that a decision is to be made today whether a billboard advertisement for Hell Pizza, which calls Bush an “evil bastard” is appropriate. (Hat tip Raw Story.)


The 666 and glowing red eyes are not part of the original ad,
but were added later by creative passers-by, I guess.

The Hell Pizza billboards have been erected around Auckland and Wellington. Half of the poster is taken up with a photo of the president and the other half has the phrase 'Hell: Too Good For Some Evil Bastards.'

Outdoor Advertising New Zealand is reviewing who is behind the boards and whether the Advertising Standards Authority needs to become involved.

Hell's media manager, Matthew Blomfield, says they expected to cause a bit of a stir. He says it is meant to provoke discussion and be a little edgy, instead of bland, boring advertising.

Mr Blomfield is hoping reaction will be balanced between those who find it funny and those who are upset by it.

I don’t have an aesthetic or acceptability problem with it—and not just because it’s Bush; if they used a picture of me, I’d feel the same, although I’d question the wisdom of using my ugly mug—but from a legal standpoint, I don’t think you can just use anyone’s image in an advertisement without their consent, even if it’s quite clear they’re not meant to be endorsing the product. So it probably ought to come down.

Still, considering they’ll get more mileage out of the controversy than any ads alone could have generated, it was a very clever marketing scheme.