Campers Wicked ways no longer wanted

Controversy continues for rental vehicle company Wicked Campers who have had three of its offensive slogans banned by New Zealand’s chief censor, adding to the ban at upcoming Splendour in the Grass festival.

The Splendour in the Grass music festival has asked punters to boycott Wicked Campers at this year’s sold-out event at North Byron Parklands in July.

“If you’re booking a campervan, please steer clear of sexist slogans! You know who you are. It’s 2016, get with the program,” the event website says.

Wicked’s brash slogans and evocative imagery across its cars and vans, with some highly sexualised or violent messages have also caused conflict in New Zealand, where they operate out of Auckland, Christchurch and Queenstown.

The chief censor’s office in New Zealand said it had banned designs that used well-known characters from children’s storybooks and television programs to present drug use in a subversive manner.

The slogans have angered NZ’s Associate Tourism Minister Paula Bennett, and she welcomed the ban on Thursday.

“This is a real victory for everyone that has seen the vans and been offended by the awful slogans and images on them,” Bennett said.

The censor ruled three slogans met the criteria for objectionable publications.

If the company continues to use them they could face a fine of up to $NZ200,000 per offence.

However, the backlash against rude, sexist and offensive slogans plastered across Wicked Campers, which could spell the end of the road for the rental company, seems to no waiver them.

The company proudly spruiks its wicked ways on its website, pointing to the campervans’ “killer paint job perfect for offending the elderly”, “table assembled to certified bong chugging height” and large storage boxes to “hide victims and drugs” and encouraging customers to “scribble rude or inspiring messages on walls”.

“We would hire unicorns but they’re very expensive so we just hire vans and cars. They come with paintjobs and without paintjobs and they even come with plenty of nooks and crannies to hide drugs, illegal immigrants and hostage politicians,” the website says.

Is it time to ask, are the jokes getting old now? Maybe Wicked could look at some publicity in a positive way, changing slogans like “Save a whale, harpoon a fat chick” to “Save a whale and donate to Sea Shepherd”.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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