July 7 2003
The US Embassy in New Zealand had lodged a complaint with a brothel that calls itself The White House.
After brothels were legalised in New Zealand this month, The White House in Auckland, which previously described itself as a massage parlour, advertised for prostitutes in a newspaper advertisement last week.
The ad, which said the brothel was "looking for more ladies to join the day and night shifts", appeared with a logo almost identical to the US presidential seal, showing an American bald eagle with a ribbon in its mouth, holding the arrows of war and an olive branch.
"We believe that any likeness of a national government symbol in a commercial advertisement is in extremely poor taste," embassy spokeswoman Janine Burns told the Sunday Star-Times.
"We are sending a letter to the advertiser that expresses our disappointment and displeasure about their choice of symbolism," she said.
The White House general manager Scott McGregor told the paper the establishment had used the logo for almost two years, adding, "It's a universally recognised symbol. I don't think they've got exclusive rights to it."
DPA