The NZ Aids Foundation (NZAF) advertisement – part of its Horny As campaign – appears in this month's Jack magazine.
Whitcoulls spokesperson Warren Hunter said the magazine had been removed from shelves pending clarification from the distributor.
Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) chief censor Bill Hastings had previously advised Jack and the NZAF that magazines did not legally have to be submitted for classification before being offered to the public.
OFLC spokesperson Deborah Gordon said that if there was anything in a magazine's content that was likely to be objectionable the publication should be bagged and stickered by the distributor.
Before being pulled, the magazine had been bagged in plastic and a brightly coloured sticker placed on its cover warning "Caution. Contains Nudity".
Family First Lobby national director Bob McCoskrie applauded the decision to pull the magazine.
"Pornography should, and must, be censored. For the protection of families and our young people, magazines containing explicit nudity should be rated R16 or R18."
He said he first heard of the advertisement while reading the GayNZ.com website, and then rang Whitcoulls for more details.
Jack magazine publisher Julian Haldane told GayNZ.com that the image had been checked with the OFLC.
"If this is correct, the chief censor should be held accountable for allowing this type of publication to be freely available to young people," Mr McCoskrie said.
"Unsuspecting consumers should not be confronted with this type of content."
NZAF told GayNZ.com that the image is "quite appropriate" in consideration of the magazine's demographic.
"In the context of health promotion to an audience of gay and bisexual men, the image is neither obscene nor provocative," NZAF gay men's health team co-ordinator Douglas Jenkin said.
"We understand men and the way they think. Most are easily enticed by sexually appealing imagery. This campaign speaks to men directly about their sexual health and wellbeing.
"The images used literally model the behaviour required to prevent the transmission of HIV between two men. . . it is unreasonable when talking to an audience of sexually active men about a sexually transmitted disease to be expected to only use images that are non-sexual."
