Controversial posters cause outrage

The posters are part of an ad campaign for skateboards and streetwear. Photo / Supplied

Posters depicting the Pope as a paedophile and Prophet Muhammad as a suicide bomber have been hung around Auckland in an advertising campaign.

Already, they appear to have caused outrage: some have been ripped down.

The series of four posters, headed "Religion is Garbage" also depict Jesus Christ as "Hole E Christ" and Destiny Church's Bishop Brian Tamaki as "Brainwashin' Brian".

Pope Benedict XVI is branded "Pedo Pope" and the Prophet Muhammad is billed as "Tick-Tock Muhammad" with a fizzing bomb.

They are designed by businessman Kennedy Poynter to promote Poynter's skate and streetwear company Eshe. It was produced in association with muckmouth.com, a skateboarding website partly owned by Rascals advertising boss Leighton Dyer.

Poynter, 40, said the poster campaign was intended to encourage people to "lighten up" but he admitted a particular trepidation around the Muhammad poster.

In 2005, cartoons in a Danish paper depicting the prophet as a suicide bomber sparked trade embargoes and riots.

The Eshe images are also being used on skateboards and T-shirts.

A spokesman for the New Zealand Muslim Association said concerned members had reported seeing a Muhammad poster in Ponsonby, near their mosque, but did not want to comment for fear of giving the campaign more attention.

Poynter said he wanted to take skateboard advertising back to a time "when skateboarding had something to say".

Poynter, who attended church as a boy and whose parents are Presbyterian ministers, said he felt religion was often treated with "kid gloves".

"We're a free society, we should be able to make fun."

He added that the posters were not mocking people who had religious faith.

"The posters say religion is garbage - it doesn't say people who believe in religion are garbage."

The Advertising Standards Authority said there had been no complaints about the posters.

But the posters have not been welcomed by members of religious communities.

Monsignor Paul Cronin, Vicar-General of the Diocese of Auckland and Parish Priest of Sacred Heart Parish in Ponsonby, said the posters were "the lowest of the low".

A spokeswoman for Destiny Church said they were not interested in commenting on a publicity stunt.

Art upstarts

* In 1992 artist Tania Kovats' Virgin in a Condom statue faced protesters during a series of exhibitions around the world, including at Te Papa museum in Wellington.

* Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, 74, has been under police protection since 2005 after his caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban led to death threats.

* Last year, Auckland's St Matthew's-in-the-City posted a billboard depicting Mary and Joseph in bed, carrying the caption: "Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow." It was vandalised several times and attacked with a knife. The ASA ruled it was not offensive.