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Kragar9/02/2009 10:42:50 am PDT

World Wildlife Fund ‘appalled’ by tasteless 9/11 terror ad

The usually gentle World Wildlife Fund was on the warpath Tuesday after a tasteless ad exploiting 9/11 appeared online bearing its famous panda logo.

It showed dozens of planes diving at lower Manhattan with the tag line: “The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.”

The ad surfaced - days before the eighth anniversary of the attack - when it won a best of 2009 award from The One Club, a nonprofit that promotes “excellence” in advertising.

Just one problem - the WWF says the image was created on specifications by a Brazilian ad agency that were never approved.

“We are just utterly appalled,” said WWF spokeswoman Leslie Aun.

“This ad is not something that anyone in our organization would ever have signed off on.”