A LEADING churchman has joined the outrage over an advertising poster on a busy Chorley road.

Reverend Dr John Cree, rector of Chorley, said he is "appalled" at the ad for the latest range of the Pot Noodle snack which reads "Hurt Me You Slag".

Reverend Cree, who is also a moderator of Churches Together in Chorley, described the poster as "inappropriate and objectionable".

He said: "In an age when we are rightly sensitive to sexual abuse this poster should not have been allowed."

He said he had already written to the Advertising Standards Authority and urged others to do the same.

Last week George Topping, aged 71, contacted the Citizen to complain about the bill board which is directly outside his home on Preston Road close to the junction with Park Road.

George said: "I would like to see it removed. I can't understand how the advertising people approved the use of the language. It's disgusting." Chorley Borough Council has said it has no involvement in the content of an advertising board and that it can only give permission for a board to be used.

A spokesman for Unilever Bestfoods UK, makers of Pot Noodle, said: "All our TV advertising commercials go through various approval processes before they go on air.

"We wanted our new Pot Noodle advertising to be risque in a humorous way but not to be offensive, so we did pre-test the ads before they went out.

"We showed the ads/posters to a group of mothers of teenagers as well as men and women aged 16-30 and most appreciated the humour.

"A small number found them irritating but not offensive. We then sought final approval from the BACC and ITC which regulates all ads that appear on television."

The Advertising Standards Agency said objectors can write to them at 2 Torrington Place, London WC1E 7HW.