Anton Matthews explains why he's passionate about normalising te reo Māori in New Zealand. (Video first published in August 2019)

A Christchurch fish and chip restaurant owner has pulled Wattie's products from his tables and shelves in protest of a campaign "bastardising" te reo.

Anton Matthews, who has become known as a champion of the country's native language, was horrified to find billboards pop up across the city featuring Māori place names misspelled to include foods that pair with tomato sauce.

The billboards feature New Zealand towns changed to names like Piehia, Frittianga and Wanakebab.

ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF The real Paihia is a tourist town in the Bay of Islands. Christchurch Māori language Anton Matthews advocate doesn't see the funny side of mocking te reo place names.

Matthews wrote to the company, saying it and other Kiwi brands should be helping strengthen rather than "take the p..." out of te reo. Wattie's products are now off the menu at his restaurant, Fush.

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It comes a day after news of research based on 2013 Census data showed te reo Māori was on a path to extinction unless government-led changes are made.

SUPPLIED Anton Matthews is all about normalising te reo for all Kiwis.

His letter to Wattie's says: "We love your t[omato] sauce and up until now, Wattie's sauce bottles have had pride of place on each of our restaurant tables at Fush.

"We have actively spent the last few years working with our community trying to encourage everyday 'Kiwi' to make an effort to pronounce Māori words, suburbs and placenames correctly.

"It matters to us, because it's important to us and its important for te mana o te reo (the status of the language).

ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF Matthews has written to the company saying it and other Kiwi brands should be helping strengthen rather than "take the piss" out of te reo.

"Little things like the macron on Wānaka and pronouncing it "Wah - nucker", rather than "Wanna - car", matter to us.

"Trying to teach people how to correct those outdated habit is one of the things that we work really hard to do in our restaurant.

"So when you intentionally go out of your way to misspell, mispronounce and take the mickey out of te reo to create a marketing campaign that normalises the mispronunciation of te reo Māori by saying, 'it's a Kiwi thing', we feel pretty disappointed."

ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF English place names are also included in the campaign, but English is in "no danger of dying", Matthews says.

Wattie's spokesman Paul Hemsley, a crisis communications expert, said the company did not intend to offend and was pulling Māori place names from its campaign – apart from Piehia, which had attracted hundreds of other plays on te reo names on its Facebook post.

Matthews said it was a "half apology" and Fush would continue to boycott Wattie's products.

The joke names were ignorant and "certainly not helpful".

He was aware the campaign also featured non-Māori names, such as Authur's Pasta, Blenham and Snaglan, but "English can probably take that hit".

"English is in no danger of dying. But te reo Māori on the other hand, well, it needs all the help it can get."

Hemsley said the campaign was created with the "intention of celebrating all things New Zealand, including our diverse cultures, place names and food choices", but had been discontinued after a review.

He spoke with Matthews about his "particular concerns about the use of Wānaka in the campaign, given his efforts to ensure this place name is properly pronounced".

Non digital billboards were due to end next week, Hemlsey said.

Matthews said the Piehia Facebook post encouraged hundreds of comments giving similar mispronounced te reo names. It undid work he and others were trying to do having te reo pronounced correctly.

"Either you're sorry and you're going to pull it all, or you're not sorry. I don't think you can pick and choose."