AN ADVERT for a gym that called people "fat and ugly" has provoked so much outrage that it has had paint thrown over it.

The billboard promoting PT Factory Gym in Denton, Greater Manchester was defaced with yellow paint after pedestrians complained to the gym's owner.

The ad showed a generic picture of a woman working out, with a male gymgoer in the background with their head out of shot.

However, the controversial tagline read: "Tired of being fat and ugly? Now just be ugly!"

It then encouraged people to join the gym for 2023 and offered "24/7 gym memberships".

The board was vandalised with neon yellow paint, while someone even spray-painted the words "This is bad mental" on it in black.

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Ollie Lawrence, who owns PT Factory, was shocked by the response to the "light-hearted joke", which was put up on December 5, adding that he wouldn't have put it up if he thought it would offend anyone.

He said: "I couldn’t believe it. It was just a light-hearted joke. It wasn’t our intention to offend anybody.

"We spoke to a lot of people beforehand and 99% have seen it for what it is – a joke.

He added that the gym had received "thousands of comments saying how brilliant it is" and only "eight or nine" complaints.

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The stunned fitness enthusiast added: "There’s nothing malicious in it. That’s not who we are as a business.

"We’re a really friendly gym. The eight people who have complained don’t actually know me as a person.

"I’m a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. I’ve always been in this industry to help people."

Ollie plans to replace the "expensive" billboard in the new year in spite of the reaction.

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