Burnett Foundation told to remove gay sex education ads

The Burnett Foundation, formerly the New Zealand Aids Foundation, funded the posters to raise awareness of gay and bisexual sex education.

However, in a short time they collected 86 complaints. Advertising Standards Authority.

‘Disgusting ad’

“I want the posters outside Birkdale dairy promoting anal sex to be removed immediately. This is a disgusting advert to be placed in a prime location where young children come to the dairy,” one complaint reads.

“It is extremely inappropriate for this ad to be displayed for children to see. It directs them to pornographic material on the Burnett Foundation website.

Other complainants were concerned that the ads appeared to be a “how-to” rather than an education in safe sex practices, and that the ads were gratuitously sexualized.

Foundation chief executive Joe Rich told NZME the ads were designed to target gay, bisexual and men who have sex with other men in New Zealand, and to fill a gap in sex education.

The foundation claims that people in these groups are 348 times more likely to contract HIV, 108 times more likely to contract syphilis and 44 times more likely to contract gonorrhea than others.

He believed the complaints stemmed from a targeted hate campaign.

“Many of the complainants were openly homophobic and demonstrated a personal belief that public health messages should not be directed at certain communities to address some very real and important issues around their health and wellbeing,” he said.

“We must normalize sex positivity in public. “We clearly know from international evidence and programs that by promoting pleasure as a result of practicing positive sexual health habits, you can achieve greater behavior change towards better health outcomes.”

Christian lobby group Family First posted a photo of posters saying “You know what to do” to its followers on Facebook in September, along with the Advertising Standards Authority email address.

Founder Bob McCoskrie told NZME the ads were “perverse” and should not be shown in front of families or children.

“The Aids Foundation has been deaf to where and who they are targeting,” he said.

“I think large posters promoting anal sex outside dairies are unacceptable and I think most people would agree.”

McCoskrie said the posters were explicit and that he would object if the posters were promoting heterosexual safe sex.

Destiny Church founder Bishop Brian Tamaki also objected to the ads, posting on X labeling the ads as “pure filth.”

He told NZME a complaint had been made to the authorities on behalf of his congregation.

“This level of sexual content, I don’t agree that it should be around town, in storefronts, shop windows and dairies, within sight of children.

“This is not the type of content kids should be exposed to this early in their lives.”

Were they aggressive?

In response, the Burnett Foundation said the campaign did not target children, carefully selected locations outside school-banned areas, and ran during the school holiday period.

However, there was only one case where the ad was mistakenly placed in one of these exclusion zones. It was removed by the media company that owned the domain.

In a recently released decision, officials ordered the Burnett Foundation to remove the ads and never use them again.

“A majority of the Complaints Board said the ad was likely to cause serious crime. This is because both posters contain references to sexual activity,” the authority states in its ruling.

The majority of the board examining the complaints agreed that it was not appropriate to show “such provocative, obscene texts and images” to the public, and that cartoon-like images and bright colors could attract the attention of children.

A minority of the board disagreed, saying the ads did not meet the threshold to lead to widespread crime and that the posters conveyed an important public health message. This minority also said children who saw them were less likely to understand sexual innuendo.

Ultimately, however, the panel found that the ad was not socially responsible and breached the Advertising Code.

Earlier this year, another ad campaign for the foundation encouraged men to take a confidential HIV test through its website alongside images of topless men.

The ads garnered eight complaints that the posters were overtly sexual, but the authority did not order their removal.

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū, covering courts and justice issues dealing with the courts. She has been a journalist for almost a decade and has been with NZME since 2022.