Ginger kids in New Zealand breathe a sigh of relief

An ad in New Zealand that invited parents to trade their unwanted red-headed children for ginger beer has been deemed ‘discriminatory and offensive’.

By Declan Whooley

We brought you a bizarre ad from Australia earlier, but it seems their Kiwi neighbours have managed to grab the advertising limelight with this stunt.

Harkanoa ginger beer decided to go for a controversial poster campaign and if it was publicity they were after then they have got it in spades.

The New Zealand Herald tells us that the posters for Hakanoa ginger beer showed a mother abandoning her red-headed child at a dairy in exchange for a six-pack of ginger beer, with the headline: "Swap your ginger for six.

The same campaign here would have children throughout the country fearing that they would be traded in quicker than you could say “I’m strawberry blonde Daddy”, but fear not, the posters have already been removed in the land of the long white cloud.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said that the ad went 'beyond the acceptable use of stereotypes and satire, and encouraged the discrimination and ridicule of red-headed people'.

We thought that was just the cross a red-haired person had to bare.