Sir Edmund Hillary pizza advert outrages Everest hero's family
The animation, posted on the New Zealand company's internet website for Hallowe'en and still on display, depicts Sir Edmund's decaying corpse flanked by the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and the late Australian actor Heath Ledger.
The three are seen climbing out of their graves and gyrating to the tones of the Michael Jackson song Thriller.
Sir Edmund died in January, aged 88.
His son Peter Hillary called the advertisement "a little grotesque".
"I don't think it's funny and I'm not very impressed," he told the Dominion-Post newspaper.
"It is early days and it's still pretty raw. It's extremely poor taste really.
"The reality is they've put it on the internet. It is now uncontrollable. The damage is done."
The company, Hell Pizza, is no stranger to causing controversy with outrageous advertising.
Previous promotions have featured Adolf Hitler, the death of the "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, and a mail drop giving away condoms which upset the Roman Catholic Church.
Sir Edmund, who became the first man to climb Everest on the eve of the Queen's coronation in 1953, is regarded as a national hero by New Zealanders.
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
The three are seen climbing out of their graves and gyrating to the tones of the Michael Jackson song Thriller.
Sir Edmund died in January, aged 88.
His son Peter Hillary called the advertisement "a little grotesque".
"I don't think it's funny and I'm not very impressed," he told the Dominion-Post newspaper.
"It is early days and it's still pretty raw. It's extremely poor taste really.
"The reality is they've put it on the internet. It is now uncontrollable. The damage is done."
The company, Hell Pizza, is no stranger to causing controversy with outrageous advertising.
Previous promotions have featured Adolf Hitler, the death of the "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, and a mail drop giving away condoms which upset the Roman Catholic Church.
Sir Edmund, who became the first man to climb Everest on the eve of the Queen's coronation in 1953, is regarded as a national hero by New Zealanders.