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Hell Pizza has apologised to Sir Edmund Hillary's family following another controversial promotion, this time featuring a skeletal animation of the revered New Zealander dancing on a grave.
The pizza company has now withdrawn the animation which depicted Sir Ed, Heath Ledger and the Queen Mother emerging from graves and dancing to Michael Jackson's song Thriller.
It was posted two days before Halloween and just 10 months after Sir Ed's death.
Sir Ed's son Peter Hillary said h e was not impressed with the animation which he did not think was funny. Sir Ed's death was still recent and "pretty raw" and the animation was in "extremely poor taste".
Hell Pizza's head of marketing Rachael Allison told NZPA the animation was part of an email campaign targeting existing Hell customers.
It was seen by about 5000 people, who had indicated they wanted to get "edgy" bits of communication from Hell, before it fell into the hands of the media.
"I think that's us talking to our loyal consumers. Obviously someone from the press has got hold of it and put it on TV. So that's a risk we have got to take. This was always intended to be a humorous communication around Halloween."
Ms Allison said the animation was meant to bring back some much loved and missed people from the dead. It was Hell's way of honouring them.
However, the company did not intend to offend Sir Ed's family and if they took offence, it apologised, she said.
Hell had no intention at this stage of apologising to either Heath Ledger's family or the Queen.
"Unless they are in touch with us I am not convinced they want to hear from us. They probably won't even know who we are."
Ms Allison said Hell's advertising was known for its controversial communication and a lot of people loved it.
"Interpretation of this is always up to individuals and we are always mindful of that and always keep an eye on our tone of voice and try to keep on top of that."
Sir Ed and Heath Ledger died in January this year and the Queen Mother died in 2002.
Hell Pizza has previously attracted complaints over its advertising, including a billboard featuring Hitler saluting with a pizza in his hand, distributing condoms to push its "Lust" pizza, and promotions that stated that people could "sell their souls" to Hell Pizza.
- NZPA
