RSL kept in the dark over 'offensive' Anzac website

The national chief executive of the RSL says the organisation was not consulted about Woolworths' aborted "Fresh in our memories" website, and did not approve it before it went live.

"With this particular website, the RSL as far as I'm aware was not consulted," RSL chief executive Sam Jackman told ninemsn this morning.

A Woolworths spokesperson had earlier told ninemsn that the website had been developed in conjunction with the organisation and had been approved by them. 

Ms Jackman said that while Woolworths was a longstanding partner of the RSL, they made an "error of judgement" in the case of this particular campaign.

"We thought that it was not worded correctly and that certainly attaching the Woolworths brand to anything approaching commercialisation was something we were pretty concerned about," she said.

The #FreshInOurMemories campaign invited people to upload images of fallen soldiers under the Woolworths-branded slogan and the words "Lest we forget, Anzac 1915 – 2015".

The hashtag – and image generator – was hijacked by Twitter users, who uploaded inappropriate images with the slogan, including pictures of Adolf Hitler and Kim Kardashian.

The supermarket took down the campaign website yesterday after it was slammed on social media as an attempt to exploit Australian veterans.

Woolworths last night released a statement apologising for the offence the branding on the picture generator had caused.

"Like many heritage Australian companies, we were marking our respect for ANZAC and our veterans," they said.

"We continue to be proud supporters of the RSL and Camp Gallipoli in this important year and look forward to working with them into the future."

Nick Alexander with Lachlan Williams