Officials at Auckland International Airport have banned a billboard featuring a former Miss Universe in lacy underwear holding a stuffed rhinoceros and posing the question "horny?", news reports said on Thursday.
The billboard, showing Australian model Jennifer Hawkins advertising products for the Lovable lingerie company with the slogan Heat things up for Valentine's Day, was a "step too far", the airport's retail manager Nick Forbes told the New Zealand Press Association.
"The bottom line is the airport has a vast array of people of different nationalities, different ages, and our view was that it was just not in keeping with the general airport image and brand," he said.
Forbes, an Australian, said he did not have a problem with the picture of his fellow countrywoman, "but we've got to try and be sensitive".