Hundreds of people have given money to fund an advertising campaign featuring two girls in hijabs, after an Australia Day billboard which used their photo was taken down following complaints.
The electronic billboard at Cranbourne, in Melbourne’s south-east, was part of a Victorian Government campaign to promote Australia Day events in the city.
It showed two girls wearing hijabs, a head covering worn by some Muslim women, celebrating Australia Day last year.
“There were a series of complaints, some of which were of an abusive and threatening nature, that were made to the organisation QMS that put the billboard up,” he said.
Executive creative director of Campaign Edge advertising agency, Dee Madigan, is behind the Go Fund Me campaign to feature the girls in another campaign.
The campaign page states the agency is “talking to media buyers now” and “looking at a full-page press ad and a billboard to start”.
Ms Madigan said the idea of a replacement billboard was to show the community that “most Australians are not horrible racists”.
“I’m really angry, this was a photo of two young Australian girls celebrating Australia Day,” she told ABC Radio Melbourne.