As far as pizza promotions go, this one will take some topping.
Hell Pizza has outraged family groups and morals campaigners by delivering innuendo-laden condom packets to letterboxes.
The controversial fast-food chain is promoting its meat-lovers' pizza – named "Lust" – with a mail drop of 170,000 branded condoms.
But it has provoked criticism from groups who say it is indecent to link pizza with sex and inappropriate to distribute condoms where young children might find them.
The packet includes explicit instructions for condom usage.
The Advertising Standards Authority received more than 30 complaints about the promotion in just a few hours yesterday morning.
"This is grubby, offensive advertising at its worst," said Bob McCoskrie of Christian lobby group Family First.
Hell Pizza spokesman Matt Blomfield said the pamphlets were intended as a "cool, funny" marketing idea, and the chance to promote sexual health was an added bonus.
"We did a campaign that we thought was really funny but we've also managed to get a message out there and get some people talking about a topic that we really should address."
The company had received about 100 complaints since the campaign launched on Wednesday, he said.
Lower Hutt couple Yvonne Ward, 63, and her husband, Rex, 65, were disgusted to discover that the package they thought was a disposable towel was actually a prophylactic.
Mrs Ward said it was inappropriate to deliver condoms through the mail, where young children might collect them. "I don't want to have to explain to an 11-year-old exactly what it is," she said. Frances Bird of the Family Planning Association said it preferred the targeted distribution of condoms in an "age- appropriate" manner to a household mailshot.
NZ Aids Foundation executive director Rachael Le Mesurier said the foundation supported campaigns that promoted safe sex and the reduction of sexually transmitted infections.
But David Lane, of the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards, said Hell Pizza had no credentials as a health authority.
"Are we going to next see kids sucking ice creams only to find a condom at the base once they've licked off all the ice cream?" Mr Lane said the ad was little more than "sleazy innuendo" that promoted promiscuity and sexual experimentation.#para"Legitimate lovemaking doesn't involve that level of sleaze," he said.
The Advertising Standards Authority has considered five complaints made against Hell Pizza in the past two years. None of them has been upheld.
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