Editorial: Wicked Campers' slogans cross line

The <i>Northern Advocate</i> fully supports Karen Edwards' call for a boycott of Wicked Campers. Photo / File

Humour is so, so subjective.

But there is always a line, and Wicked Campers have crossed it.

The slogans on their rental vans are meant to catch attention and it seems they court the ensuing publicity. Perhaps "all publicity is good publicity" is a marketing mantra - who knows, they wouldn't talk to the Advocate.

We tried contacting them to ask their view on the offence taken by Whangarei mum Karen Edwards to a Wicked slogan which makes a wisecrack about drowning your wife.

Mrs Edwards' daughter Ashlee, 21, died after the father of her two children held her head under a Whangarei stream until she stopped struggling.

Mrs Edwards says her stomach churned when she read the slogan on Facebook.

The slogan is offensive and these days painting it on a van doesn't mean the only place someone will see it is in a carpark, or when the van whizzes past. It takes one person to take umbrage, post it on Facebook, and it is exposed to millions, potentially.

If you want to pay money to go and watch a comedian dish out the misogynistic humour Wicked Campers is exploiting, that's your business. But when you put it in the public domain, and it offends people, you have a responsibility to the people whom you are hurting.

Wicked Campers are shirking that responsibility - the Northern Advocate fully supports Mrs Edwards' call for a boycott of Wicked Campers. Their slogans just aren't funny.