The government campaign for the pension reform has met with widespread public disapproval following an add spoof featuring a reality show celebrity and a leaflet blaming the reform on the birth-control pill.

The spoof video designed as a parody of the arguments made by the anti-reform camp appeared on YouTube last weekend, making news headlines and raising an immediate controversy.

While the Government Communication Office said the ad had achieved its intention, Prime Minister Borut Pahor expressed indignation, arguing that the pension reform was too serious and important to joke about.

"People are clever enough and need no PR tricks to take a decision," Pahor said in response to the ad on Monday.

Angry reactions have come not only from the opposition and trade unions, who were the target of the spoof, but also from coalition politicians.

Questions were raised about the use of the taxpayer's money, while the opposition Democrats (SDS) demanded on Thursday the parliamentary Interior Policy, Public Administration and Justice Committee to meet to discuss what they labelled as the abuse of the law on referendum campaign by the government.

In the latest reaction Human Rights Ombudsman Zdenka Cebasek-Travnik said on Thursday that individual messages in the campaign contained elements of inappropriate attitude to women.

As part of the government communication strategy a campaign leaflet has been leaked which says that the birth control pill is to blame for the reform.

Head of the Government Communication Office Darijan Kosir rushed to explain that the leaflet was just a version of work in progress, apologizing to everyone offended by it.

In another setback, the Pogledi talk show broadcast by TV Slovenija on Thursday evening alleged that the government awarded the contract for communication campaign unlawfully.