KEY POINTS:
The Pacific community is angered that billboards around Auckland featuring the word "sex" in large letters have still not been removed although the Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints about them.
The authority ruled last week that the seven billboards offering "longer lasting sex" to advertise a remedy for male sexual dysfunction were offensive and breached advertising standards, and ordered their "imminent" removal.
Will 'Ilolahia, a Tongan community leader, said Pacific people were still "queuing up" to complain about the billboards, which he believed should not still be standing.
He said APN Outdoor, the company in charge of putting the billboards up on behalf of an Australian client, was formally informed of the decision by the authority last Wednesday and he had expected they would be down by now.
Instead, the billboards were continuing to create tension within the Pacific community and he had heard they were the subject of at least five Tongan church sermons on Sunday.
Phil Clemas, general manager of APN Outdoor, told the Herald yesterday he had just learned that the client, the Advanced Medical Institute, had decided to modify the billboards instead of having them removed.
"We were advised just this morning that the client wanted to change the content of the billboards and we've been organising the logistics since."
He said his staff had received a number of calls asking why the billboards were still in place.
"While we provide the billboard sites, we are at the end of a chain that includes the Australian-based client, their advertising agency in Australia, and the specialist printers who can print the skins required for these billboards."
Mr Clemas said APN Outdoor also had to source the specialist staff and the appropriate permits to work on the sites, two of which required an abseiling team and others that required permission to work alongside the rail or road corridors.
Provided he could secure the abseiling team, which was busy on other work, the billboards would all be changed by late tomorrow, he said.
The alterations would involve some sort of "patch", but he would not say what that would be.
Dr Jack Vaisman, chief executive of AMI, told the Herald from Australia last night that he was confident the changes would meet required standards. He said the modifications already had the approval of the relevant authorities.
ASA executive director Hilary Souter told the Herald she had not seen the proposed changes. If the wording was significantly changed, it would effectively be a different billboard.
She said she would have expected prompter action, which was a matter both for AMI and APN Outdoor. "It would have been better if they'd come down quicker."
The authority had received 38 complaints about them, she said. It found their combination of wording, large type size, bold colours and overall size was likely to cause widespread offence, particularly as they were visible to children.
The board was concerned that before the billboards were put up, the Therapeutic Advertising Prevetting Services had identified them as a likely subject of complaints, but that advice seemed to have been ignored.
