Ad poking fun at Len Brown's affair cleared by watchdog

Shan Inglis won't face court after serial litigant Graham McCready dropped procedures against her. Photo / NZ Herald

An advertisement that poked fun at Auckland Mayor Len Brown's extramarital affair has been cleared by the advertising watchdog as humorous and satirical.

A complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the direct email advertisement for Naked Bus, which made reference to Mr Brown's affair with former mistress Bevan Chuang, was "in poor taste".

The ad offered a discount on mobile website bookings, saying: "Unless you're Len Brown, you'll probably agree that using out new mobile website to book cheap fares is a more useful (and appropriate) use for your mobile phone."

Mr Brown's council-provided mobile bill was investigated as part of an independent probe into his expenses.

It found his bill over the review period was $4538.50, of which the mayor reimbursed $265, and that Mr Brown used the phone for 1375 calls and texts with Ms Chuang - about 10 per cent of the total.

The complaint to the ASA, laid before the expenses review was made public last month, said the Naked Bus ad portrayed Mr Brown "in a manner that could cause him to be the object of ridicule and/or hostility".

But the ASA's complaints board concluded the ad was a "humorous and satirical portrayal of Len Brown within the context of Naked Bus's brand and mobile website launch".

It found the ad did not reach the threshold of ridicule, hostility and offence.

The ASA also found there were no grounds to proceed with a complaint against a Christmas campaign for strip club Calendar Girls.

The radio ad said it was time to "jingle your bells" and continued: "Xmas at Calendar Girls will be merry and she'll be unwrapping her gifts all night."

The complainant said they were offended by the ad, and Christmas should be "about purging sin, not making more".

The ASA noted Calendar Girls promoted a legal form of adult entertainment, and was entitled to promote its business at any time of year, including Christmas.