It was meant to be a parody of election hoardings, but a Northland Rugby Union sign promoting tomorrow's ITM Cup game against Manawatu has fallen foul of the Electoral Commission, which has ruled the signs breach election advertising rules and could be seen as endorsing the National Party.
The signs, that had an image of Tane the Taniwha superimposed over an image of Prime Minister John Key and the words Cheering for Northland with the word Taniwha superimposed over the National Party logo - but with part of the logo still visible - were put up around Whangarei shortly after the election hoardings started to appear last month.
But the similarity to the National Party billboards that have Mr Key "Working for New Zealand" prompted a complaint to the Electoral Commission from the Whangarei Labour Party.
The commission ruled that the NRU signs were election advertisements and the union immediately undertook remedial action to cover up the National Party logo. The commission was then satisfied that the new signs did not breach the Electoral Act and decided to take no further action against NRU.
Chief Electoral Officer Robert Peden said the NRU told the commission the signs were a parody of election billboards and were not intended to be an election ad.