A van rental company's website likening the Government to ''Nazis'' who fine freedom campers ''like crack addicts smoke crack'' has sparked a complaint from a Dunedin city councillor.
Controversial company Wicked Campers' wording was particularly offensive as many of its clients were German tourists, Cr Kate Wilson said.
Cr Wilson said she had filed a complaint with the Commerce Commission yesterday, after bringing up the issue of the Wicked Campers' site at a council meeting on freedom campers on Tuesday.
She told the council about content on the website that says: ''The NZ government are like Nazis on campers parking and sleeping by roadsides.
''They fine people like crack addicts smoke crack.
''So to avoid a nasty fine - it's recommended that you do some homework on where you can and can't sleep''
Cr Wilson said: ''I can't think of a worse way to portray the country.
''To compare the Government to crack dealers; I'm sorry, at what point is this OK?''
Instead, the company should be telling its clients why they were being asked to park in camping grounds in many parts of the country.
She described the advertising on the site as misleading and ''very, very offensive''.
Cr Wilson also said Wicked Campers was part of the problem with freedom campers in New Zealand.
She said the reason the company's vans were cheap was because they were ''uncertified'', or did not have toilets.
The Government needed to tell the company ''this isn't OK that you continue to do this''.
''It is not OK to send them out on the streets or roads of any part of this country saying 'you can just defecate'.''
Wicked Campers did not respond to a request for comment.
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Comments
They should have the freedom to say this....It is also so easy to say I find this offensive . If people don't like take no notice......PC does not work. does it.
Whatever does this mean? "If people don't like take no notice......PC does not work. does it."
In any language (or lack of it) Wicked Campers goes too far. It's not funny, it's upsetting to many and should not be allowed. Wicked's reputation is already in tatters, but they somehow think that any publicity is good publicity. It is not. I would like to see the faces of the people that deliver this trash and make them accountable.
Makes perfect sense @no 1.
PC doesn't work, whatever PC is. Decency, respect, appropriate behaviour attracts overseas visitors.
The only group with the right to throw around 'Nazi' epithets is Jewish.