Coles has been forced to wind back its Easter advertising campaign after staff were sexually harassed by customers.

The supermarket giant has come under fire for the “thoughtless and demeaning” campaign in which it asked workers to hold signs with the words “I’m free”.

The hand-held signs, which were intended to advertise Coles opening extra checkouts over the Easter weekend, have now been removed after complaints from staff and their family members saying the campaign's "sexual undertones" put staff them at risk.

"Unfortunately in response to a small number of customers behaving disrespectfully to team members, we have now removed the hand-held signs," a Coles spokeswoman told Fairfax Media.

Staff member Emily Henderson commented on the supermarket’s Facebook page that the “horrible” comments had come from customers “male and female, old and young”.

Another employee Kim Baker labelled the campaign “thoughtless and demeaning” and said the “sexual innuendo” made her “uncomfortable”.

She encouraged other staff to participate in the campaign.

Some customers also commented on the Facebook page to complain.

“Worst ad campaign ever!” Kylie McKenzie wrote. “Thank goodness my daughter’s store was having a visit from the area manager this morning and those dumb campaign signs were taken off the girls on the registers.”

“The number of lewd and suggestive comments made to the female service staff in the short time they had the signs in their hands, by mostly male customers including but not limited to, ‘You’re free? When can I take you home?’ was absolutely disgusting.”

“Maybe it’s time to overhaul the advertising think tank crew, clearly they have been holed up in their offices way too long and have lost touch with real world and how uncouth people in the real world can be,” she wrote.

A Coles spokeswoman told Fairfax Media the signs were supposed to "indicate an open checkout" and be "a fun way of activating the campaign".