A television advertisement featuring butchers dancing in the streets like Hare Krishna followers has been taken off air after complaints against it were upheld.
The Advertising Standards Complaints Board said yesterday that the New Zealand Beef and Lamb commercial Red Meat Feel Good featuring butchers dancing to the song Jitterbug Boogy
had prompted more than 80 complaints.
Most said the advertisement was offensive because it mimicked Hare Krishna followers, who do not eat meat and hold the cow to be sacred.
New Zealand Beef and Lamb said it bought the ad from Australia, where a similar complaint had failed.
"The featured people are butchers, celebrating the nutritional benefits of red meat in a busy city street," it told the board.
"It does not follow, as the complainants appear to believe, that promoting meat in a celebratory way is an attack on or insult to those who ... consider the cow to be sacred."
- NZPA
