'Salami' Tube Ads Outrage Italians

The aroma of cheese and onion crisps and the stench of greasy burgers may linger on the tube for longer after London Underground was forced to withdraw an advert urging passengers not to eat smelly food.

Outraged Italians complained to their embassy in the capital after seeing the "offensive" poster, which depicts a man resembling an Italian delicatessen owner sitting on the underground surrounded by parma ham, salami and garlic, above the words "Please don't eat smelly food".

The ambassador, Giancarlo Aragona, wrote to Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, and Transport for London to ask them to take it down, while Italian agricultural and meat trade associations complained that the poster could damage Italy's lucrative cured meat exports to Britain. An Italian company whose logo was visible on one of the salamis even threatened legal action.

Guido Cerboni, the head of economic affairs at the Italian embassy in London, said the £100,000 poster campaign was "offensive and harmful to Italian products".

"We have no objection to the campaign about smelly food, but we object to the way it has been presented," Mr Cerboni said. "It is clearly harmful for Italian produce and also not very politically correct, because the man portrayed in the poster was clearly Italian or Mediterranean. It was very naive. Professional people should know these things and be more careful about them."

Advertising executives had "obviously never eaten prosciutto" if they thought it was smelly, he added.

A spokesperson for London Underground said: "We apologise for any offence caused to members of the Italian community or charcuterie manufacturers. The poster was meant to be a light-hearted attempt to dissuade tube passengers from eating smelly foods." The posters would be removed soon.