The botched Woolworths Anzac ads, which branded a picture of a soldier with the supermarket chain’s slogan, prompted so much abuse the ad agency behind it has been forced to flee online trolls.

The public outcry of anger at the “crass” campaign was enough to crash their web server and upset their staff.

The company closed down its Twitter account because of the constant abuse it was fielding, which Carrspace director Madeleine Preece said was too much for her younger staff.

• ‘Vile’ Woolworths Anzac Day ad sparks outrage
• Pranksters help ‘Aussie Made’
• In defence of the Anzacs: enough with crass ads

“We respect the court of public opinion about our work, we value feedback, but we don’t respect trolls or abusive and offensive language being used towards our staff,” she told Fairfax Media.

She disputed calls the company was “in hiding” during the two-day affair.

“We have not been in hiding. Unfortunately, we have had technical issues with our website due to the volume of traffic in the last 24 hours,” she said.

#FreshInOurMemories #LestWeForget pic.twitter.com/DnwGHJ2z0B

— ABC News Intern (@ABCnewsIntern) April 14, 2015

“We never removed our website. We deactivated the Twitter account due to trolling and vulgar and abusive tweets that were affecting the team.” The agency was appointed for a three-year stint with Woolworths in March, Fairfax reported. On Tuesday the supermarket chain’s campaign website was taken down after a brief operating period. The site, aimed at creating social media profile pictures, let users upload their own pictures which would be imprinted with the words Lest we Forget and the company’s buzzword ‘fresh’ in the phrase “Fresh in our Memories,” followed by the Woolworths logo. The chain released a statement on Wednesday after a storm of ridicule erupted on social media. 

#freshinourmemories pic.twitter.com/EtKD3vxSz3 — Glenn Valencich (@glennvalencich) April 14, 2015

“We regret that our branding on the picture generator has caused offense, this was clearly never our intention,” the statement said.

Veteran Affairs Minister Michael Ronaldson stepped in to stop Woolworths using the word Anzac without permission, The Australian reported.

And Labor’s Ed Husic also criticised the campaign on Wednesday.

“You shouldn’t be trying to score brand points off something that caused such a great loss to the country,” he said.

It was basically inevitable that someone was going to make a #freshinourmemories Downfall video wasn’t it… https://t.co/DnYYqnjyAd

— Nic Christensen (@nicchristensen) April 15, 2015