(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Sydney - Australian retailer Target has withdrawn from sale three Gallipoli-themed products after a government request, days after supermarket chain Woolworths was forced to pull an advertising campaign criticised as trivialising the World War I battle.
The items - a beanie, a hoodie and a foam can holder - were being sold in Target stores on behalf of Camp Gallipoli, an organisation arranging camps on April 25, the Anzac Day public holiday marking the bloody battle on the peninsula in what is now Turkey.
The use of the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) name in any material has to be approved by the government under a 1920 law.
The three products were "deemed to be unsuitable and in breach of the permit" issued to Camp Gallipoli to use the word, Veterans' Affairs Minister Michael Ronaldson's spokesman told AFP.
"The minister wrote to Camp Gallipoli and asked them to have the products removed from sale," the spokesman said.
"We also spoke to Target and said any products that are still remaining on the shop floor aren't to be sold and Target responded very quickly to that, which we are very grateful for."
Target stores in Australia are not connected to the United States retail giant of the same name.
Camp Gallipoli said it would donate all proceeds to the Returned and Services League (RSL) and Legacy, an organisation that helps to care for the families of dead or injured soldiers.
Ronaldson called Woolworths on Tuesday to halt a marketing drive that he said had not obtained permission to use the word Anzac.
The campaign included a website hosting a picture generator that saw the company's logo, the word Anzac and the phrase "Fresh in our Memories" placed over images of former soldiers. Woolworths' slogan is "The Fresh Food People".
The advertising campaign was lambasted on social media as being "tacky" and "tasteless".
Gallipoli ended with an allied withdrawal but is a key event in Australia's national consciousness.
The country is next week set to mark a century since the start of the battle. Some 11,500 Australian and New Zealand soldiers who took part died.
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