FAUX outrage at a flame thrower torching a vegan’s bowl of kale in the new Australia Day lamb ad has prompted calls for Australians to lighten up and get our sense of humour back.

The Meat and Livestock Australia ad features SBS newsreader Lee Lin Chin masterminding Operation Boomerang, a plan for military special ops teams to bring Australians home to eat lamb on Australia Day.

But a scene where a bearded Aussie in New York refuses to come home because he is a vegan and then has his bowl of kale torched with a flame thrower has prompted at least 300 complaints to the Advertising Standards Bureau.

media_camera “Lambassador” Sam Kekovich in the new ad.

“We are on track to have more complaints than the ad for (adultery website) Ashley Madison,” Meat and Livestock Australia marketing manager Andrew Howie said.

“So we have an ad that blowtorches a bowl of kale and some Australians say that is more offensive than a brand that actively promotes infidelity — to me that is political incorrectness gone mad.

“The reality is that no vegans were harmed in the making of this ad and if they are offended it’s not really a problem because they were never going to buy lamb anyway.”

NEW LAMB AD OUTRAGES VEGANS AND VEGETARIANS

media_camera Upset ... Complaints on the Meat and Livestock Australia page.

The ad, which features “Lambassador” Sam Kekovich, Wallabies captain Stephen Moore and cricketer Mitchell Johnson, has already had 1.8 million views.

Rob Shehadie, co-creator of Channel 9’s new comedy Here Come The Habibs, blamed social media for the contrived outraged.

“That ad has inspired me to have a lamb kebab on Australia Day,” he said. “The problem is that everyone has a voice on social media now and when they complain it gets traction. Of course that just makes more people look for it. Really, just relax.

media_camera The Australia Day lamb ad pokes fun at vegans.

“I grew up watching comedy and just laughing at Australians taking the mickey out of each other. We need to get back to laughing more — bring back Paul Hogan.”

The response to the ad follows similar howls of outrage at quips made by Ricky Gervais while hosting the Golden Globes. His jibe at transgender former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner led to Gervais being branded “transphobic”.

“Suggesting a joke about Caitlin (sic) Jenner is automatically transphobic is like suggesting a joke about Bill Cosby is automatically racist,” fired back Gervais.

media_camera Cartoonist Warren Brown’s view.

media_camera Host Ricky Gervais speaks onstage during the 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards / Picture: Getty Images

A post by NFL player Jarryd Hayne about disgraced West Indian cricketer Chris Gayle also enraged people on social media. Hayne said he was “teaching the bruv some manners on speaking to women” after Gayle attempted to chat up a reporter on air.

Fiona Jolly, CEO of the Advertising Standards Bureau, said about 300 complaints about the Australian lamb ad had focused on three main areas — discrimination against vegans, violence against vegans and the use of the word boomerang in an inappropriate manner.

media_camera Lee Lin Chin in the Australia Day lamb ad.

She said the bureau’s independent board would consider next week whether the ad should be pulled.

“Discriminating against someone’s eating choices is arguably not really covered by the code of ethics,” she said.

The lamb ad is not the only tongue-in-cheek plug to spark complaints.

media_camera A woman flicked snake with her belt in this Hyundai commercial.

In the past year 161 viewers complained about an ad for Holden that showed a man complaining about “bloody caravaners” for using “inappropriate language” and 59 people complained about a Hyundai ad that showed a woman flicking her belt at a snake for promoting “violence or cruelty to animals”.

Clive Hamilton, professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University, said: “You have to take these ads with a grain of salt. I am sure some vegetarians will laugh at it and get stuck into their bowl of lightly toasted kale.”