An ad featuring members of the Brisbane Broncos helping out in sponsor NRMA’s office has been banned – because player Sam Thaiday is featured pinching chocolate bars from a vending machine.

The NRMA ad, created by the agency Human, was launched at the beginning of May.

But viewers objected to the behaviour of the league players. One vending machine owner complained to the Advertising Standards Board: “Why would they show stealing using so called children’ role models such a Thiaday. I own vending machines theft of product is always a concern.”

The NRMA claimed that Thaiday had already paid for the chocolate, saying: “The humour of the Advertisement is to show in a light hearted manner that the Broncos players are a bit out of place in a typical office environment due to their size, strength and inexperience.

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“In one scene, Sam Thaiday is shown jiggling a vending machine to dislodge a chocolate bar that he had purchased which had become stuck. Consistent with the humour of the Advertisement, this action causes numerous chocolate bars to fall out of the machine because of Sam’s size and strength.”

However, the ASB ruled: “The Board considered that there is no suggestion that the player has not paid for one of the products and that there is not necessarily a suggestion of theft. However the Board noted it would not be the case that the man would have paid for the number of product that fell from the machine and that therefore there is a depiction or suggestion of theft.”

And it added: “The image of the man shaking the machine from the top is a depiction of an activity that can cause injury.”

July 12 Update: NRMA Insurance issued a statement saying: