Billboards pitching a new programme for Prime Television have been removed after complaints from the Jewish community.
One billboard in Wakefield St, Wellington, and two in Auckland were removed yesterday after going up on Tuesday.
The billboards were for Madmen: The Glory Years of Advertising, due out at the end of the month, and bore the slogan: "Advertising Agency Seeks: Clients. All business considered, even from Jews."
The billboards were removed after a complaint from New Zealand Jewish Council chairman Geoff Levy, who was also angry about a two-page advertisement using the same wording in the latest Time magazine.
Mr Levy said Prime had acted quickly to remove the billboards and if the council received a written apology and a two-page apology in the next Time the matter would be resolved.
However, the damage had already been done and 26,000 copies of Time would remain on waiting-room tables and in houses for months to come, he said.
"The wisdom of the entire project defies belief," he said. "Long ago we moved on from this sort of language, but obviously not.
"In these days of 60 years plus since the Second World War ... I never thought it would come again let alone to New Zealand."
Prime spokesman Tony O'Brien said approval for the campaign, which was to mirror "archaic" 1960s' attitudes prevalent in the show, had been given by the marketing department, which had made an error of judgment.
All the billboards were immediately removed and an apology would run in the next edition of Time, he said.
"We take full responsibility for this and we have totally apologised to the Jewish community. The campaign crossed the line from being provocative to being offensive."
Regional Wellington Jewish Council chairman David Zwartz said the phrase "even Jews" suggested they were "some other sort of class of human beings - second-class citizens" and harked back to the time when it was "acceptable to be anti-Semitic".
"It's not the case now, especially in New Zealand. It was totally derogatory to Jewish people, in any context."
It is not the first time advertising company Draft FCB had caused offence advertising Prime TV's shows.
In May, the Advertising Standards Authority fielded complaints about billboards that used back lighting at night to reveal sexy lingerie on a "call girl" for The Secret Diary of a Call Girl.
In February, a radio advertisement for Hidden Palms was pulled off the air by Prime after complaints about its language on parental suicide.
Mr O'Brien said they challenged Draft FCB to be innovative but they had gone too far.
"That's something we're not prepared to accept, hence the immediate removal of the billboards."
Adverstising Standards Authority executive director Hilary Souter said they had received a handful of complaints but the quick response of the broadcaster should settle the matter.
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