Couche-Tard, a Quebec-based convenience-store chain, said it is comfortable with an Internet advertising campaign featuring a happy clown being hacked to pieces.

Another ad has the multi-coloured clown meeting a gruesome death at the hands of a saw and coming out the other end in the form of balloons and pieces of confetti.

The two online ads are aimed at promoting the 10th anniversary of Sloche, Couche-Tard’s popular slushy drink.

Company spokeswoman Jacinthe Harnois said adults may finds the ads distasteful, but they are not the ones being targeted.

She said the campaign is aimed at teenagers and that the ads are appearing only on the Internet because that’s where it’s easy to reach youngsters.

She adds some people may be shocked watching the videos but she jokes the clown is just happy doing his job.