A tailgate decal depicting a woman tied up in the bed of a pickup truck is causing a stir in Waco.

The decal, produced by Waco marketing and advertising company Hornet Signs, creates an optical illusion convincing viewers that a young woman’s hands and feet are bound by rope as she lies helpless in the bed of the truck.

The vehicle belongs to an employee and the decal is meant to test the effectiveness of the company’s efforts to create realistic images for car wrap advertisements.

Hornet Signs owner Brad Kolb told a local Waco news station the company never expected to get the sort of reactions the image has received, nor do they condone abduction or abuse.

Kolb says the bound woman is an employee who volunteered to be photographed.

When asked during our interview why Kolb chose to use that particular image, he said, "It was something that is unique and would be different, and it still gave us the same scenario of a challenge to see if we could truly make it look real."

We also asked Kolb what his response would be to those who saw a humorous aspect to the piece.

"I'm glad people can take it that way, but that wasn't necessarily our intent or even our goal behind it."

He also expressed regret that the decal's artistic value was overlooked by those with a negative reaction to the subject matter.

The decal was applied to the truck about a month ago, and Kolb says decal orders have gone up since it started getting attention around town.

Here is the entire interview, presented in two segments:

UPDATE 9/9/13 Kolb released a video response addressing the controversy on YouTube today:

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