Update: The Australian Communications & Media Authority will only accept complaints from people who live or do business in Australia. If you are an Australian resident, please complete this online form to file an official complaint: www.acma.gov.au/hotline Thanks!

Update: The New Zealand Advertising Standards Board rejected the complaint, saying that it falls outside their scope of responsibility because it is a promotion by a broadcast station for one of their own programs. The Standards Board recommended contacting the Australian Communications & Media Authority. The ACMA email address has been added below. If you've already signed or wish to send an additional personalized message, email broadcasting@acma.gov.au

Update: An article in the New Zealand Herald about this petition noted that the Australian Advertising Standards Board needs to be targeted, not the New Zealand Advertising Standards Board. The targets have been updated. I also encourage you to file a complaint using the Advertising Standards Board's online complaint form.

While advocates in the U.S. were fighting to reinstate the crush video ban, advertisers in New Zealand were creating a commercial that made a mockery of this twisted form of animal cruelty.

Crush videos are depictions of small animals being tortured, impaled, trampled, or literally crushed to death by a woman wearing high-heeled shoes to appeal to a sick sexual fetish.

The new commercial for New Zealand's Next Top Model starts with a small stuffed animal being crushed by a red high-heeled shoe. After clips of "drama" from the show, in case you missed it the first time, the commercial ends with the red high-heeled shoe crushing the stuffed animal again.

There is simply nothing funny about parodying crush videos.

Blatantly referencing an industry that's based around sexualizing animal cruelty is tasteless, as well as insulting to everyone who has worked so hard to stop crush videos. It sends the message that crushing animals is somehow amusing, acceptable or even attractive. Crush videos are animal cruelty, and in the U.S., they're illegal.

Tell New Zealand's Next Top Model that crush videos are not fashionable and ask Channel 11 to stop airing this appalling commercial and issue a public apology for their poor taste in advertising.

Photo credit: Miss Otilia Luther