An article last month named three people with mental health issues well-known for frequenting central city streets and discussed their appearances and habits.
In another part of the same edition, students were asked to nominate which of three they would have sex with, kill or marry.
Mental health advocate Graham Roper said yesterday he had complained to police, the Human Rights Commission, the Mental Health Commission, the Mental Health Foundation and the Press Council about the inappropriateness of the material.
While one person named in the magazine appeared to be fictional, the other three were real, he said.
Critic might have intended the articles to be satire, but he said it had gone too far.
The material was "not subtle" and it "beggared belief" Critic would think it was acceptable to print it, he said.
Mr Roper, the Otago mental health consumer adviser with the Southern District Health Board, is also a member of the Mental Health Commission's sector advisory group and the Royal New Zealand and Australian College of Psychiatrists board.
The named individuals had the right to take legal action if they felt they had been defamed, Mr Roper said, but doubted whether any of them would do so.
"Who defends these vulnerable people without the whereforall [sic] or the means to take legal action? I am making a stand on their behalf."
He said he had asked police whether inciting students to violence, by asking them whom they would kill, might be a criminal offence.
Police were considering the matter.
The Mental Health Commission is supporting the complaints.
Commissioner Ray Watson, of Rotorua, issued a statement yesterday asking Critic to apologise and be more responsible in the future.
When contacted, he said the magazine had written about people with mental health issues in a "callous", "dehumanising," "extreme" and "unnecessary" way.
Press Council executive director Mary Major said yesterday no formal complaints had been received about the articles, but three people had inquired about the formal complaint process. Critic is in recess until after student exams and semester break.
Editor Ben Thomson was out of town and unable to be contacted yesterday.
OUSA president Harriet Geoghegan said yesterday Critic was "very independent" of the OUSA.
One complaint had been passed on to Mr Thomson.
Ms Geoghegan said she had read the main article and considered it "quite obviously satirical".
"On the outside, it might have looked as though they were making fun of people, but underneath they were getting the message [about mental health issues] across."
Ms Geoghegan said she was told the first part of the article - an apparent interview with a homeless person - was fictional.
