It might not be in the same league as the Pope's rash insults, but this week's weird but true story is related. From Australia comes this strange tale of another offensive image that has drawn complaints - a gorilla wearing a fez.
Western Australia's Public Transport Authority (PTA) has withdrawn a $7,000 advertising campaign because it received complaints that the advertisements were offensive.
Three people have complained about the posters, which show an oversized gorilla wearing a fez on its head, because the fez is considered to be an Islamic cap.
PTA spokesman David Hynes says the ads have been running since July, but they were pulled this week when the three complaints were received.
He says the PTA has also withdrawn thousands of pamphlets showing the same image.
Mr Hynes says the ads were never meant to offend anyone.
"The decision was made to put the fez on the gorilla and at the time we did not think it was offensive," he said.
"But if somebody felt that it was, for whatever reason, whether it was racial or religious or ethnic, if they felt it was offensive we reacted accordingly and withdrew it immediately."
Mr Hynes says the campaign was due to be pulled by the end of this month anyway.
"Given that it was within a week or so of its life anyway, it was just the easiest thing. We seek not to offend people," he said.
"The complaints were lodged and we looked at them and thought it was a reasonable complaint, albeit I don't necessarily agree with it."
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
No comments:
Post a Comment