'Offensive' Tui billboard takes a hasty flight

A beer billboard that offended many Christian groups in Hamilton is coming down almost as quickly as it went up.

The Tui billboards, including one on the corner of Claudelands Rd and Grey St in Hamilton, reads: "Let's take a moment this Christmas to think about Christ. Yeah right."

Its message has received mixed reviews from Christians across the country. In Christchurch, one Catholic bishop said the ad was "great" and helped remind people about the meaning of Christmas, and a Methodist Church of New Zealand spokesman said the billboard made a good point.

But, in Hamilton, the joke was lost on Father Frank Eggleton, parish priest of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who labelled the provocative billboard "appalling" and said it demeaned the holiness and meaning of Christmas.

DB Breweries communications manager Gina Williams said that was the point of the billboards - that nobody took Christmas seriously any more.

"Our stance on this from the start was to highlight that Christmas has lost its true meaning," she said.

"But it's obviously been taken the wrong way by some people so we will be taking them down. We don't do it very often but we see that this has touched a nerve."

Ms Williams said the billboards were intended to be funny, a bit cheeky, but topical as well.

"This was meant to be more topical than cheeky. Our message was that people aren't really thinking about family and friends any more, they're thinking about shopping and the credit crunch and how it's been turned into a cash cow by retailers."

Tui brand manager Jared Bear said it was not a case of the company getting it wrong with the billboard, but wanting to move on.

"I don't think we got it wrong," he said. "What we've done is generated some debate about Christianity, and Christmas isn't as focused around Christ as it should be. Why we've taken it down is we've had a really strong response from a lot of people and out of respect we're thinking it's time to keep moving."

The billboards were yesterday being removed and replaced with one of two signs which read: "Grandma has a real knack for buying Christmas presents. Yeah right." and "It's okay, we were under the mistletoe. Yeah right."