BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | 'Grotesque' NZ pizza ads dropped

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | 'Grotesque' NZ pizza ads dropped: "A New Zealand pizza chain has withdrawn a Halloween promotion that showed skeleton animations of three deceased celebrities dancing on graves.

Hell Pizza's advert showed animations of Sir Edmund Hillary, actor Heath Ledger and the Queen Mother dancing to Michael Jackson's song Thriller.

The family of Mount Everest conqueror Sir Edmund, who died in January, said the ad was in 'extremely poor taste'.

Hell's Pizza apologised and said it did not mean to cause offence.

"Clearly he's revered in New Zealand and we all love him," spokesman Glenn Corbett said.

"The idea of Sir Ed being there was intended to be a light-hearted remembrance."

The firm is no stranger to controversy. Last year, it showed Hitler in a Nazi salute with a pizza in his hand. Previously, it has distributed condoms alongside its "Lust" pizza.

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