Amnesty International has distanced itself from a series of controversial posters by its advertising partners as part of a proposed campaign protesting China's human rights violations in the lead up to the Olympics.
The images, produced for Amnesty's branches in Slovakia and France, show actors posing as dissidents being interrogated and abused in a series of sporting venues.
One ad shows 'dissident' strapped, bleeding and blindfolded, to an archery target as a Chinese police officer reaches for his pistol in the foreground.
This ad is one of three produced by the French TBWA Worldwide agency that has been circulating on the internet.
Each of the posters carries the caption: "After the Olympic Games, the fight for human rights must go on."
Amnesty's Slovakian branch produced three very similar posters, showing 'dissidents' being threatened by an Olympic pistol shooter, beaten by a boxer and manhandled by a wrestler.
The ads appropriate the Beijing Olympics slogan "China is getting ready", but add: "in the name of ensuring stability and harmony in the country during the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese Government continues to detain and harass political activist, journalist, lawyers and human rights workers."
Both of the campaigns were dropped because their message was deemed offensive and confusing.
"Neither set of images fits with the internationally developed communication strategy, in tone or concept," Amnesty International's Beijing Olympics Project Manager, Rob Godden told Fairfax.
"In particular, they depicted violence linked to sporting events or equipment that could be offensive to some or confusing in its message."
The Slovakian campaign was also facing copyright restrictions because of their use of the Olympic rings.
Godden also denied Amnesty had allowed the posters to be leaked onto the internet, saying they had even tried to have the images taken down.
"It is the case that ad agencies like to show off their work to attract business," he said."
"In both cases this work was posted on the internet without Amnesty International's permission. Once on the web they went viral, however this was never our intent nor were we involved in placing the ads on the internet in the first place."
In China, bloggers have dismissed the ads as the latest incident of 'China bashing', which they believe has become a new, unofficial Olympic sport.