PETALING JAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Shell (M) Bhd will be removing all promotional standees featuring one of its female employees, after images of men misbehaving with the cutouts went viral.

The oil and gas company said it found the actions of the men disrespectful and urged the public not to continue sharing the images.

"We are aware that pictures of several individuals photographed engaging in distasteful and suggestive acts with a promotional standee at our retail stations are circulating online.

"We do not condone this disrespectful act, which is completely against the culture of Malaysians and Shell's core values.

"We urge netizens and members of the public to refrain from sharing these images further.

"The standee will be removed from all our sites with immediate effect," Shell said in a statement on Monday (July 3).

Images of a group of men kissing and making suggestive gestures with the life-size cardboard cutouts of Shell station manager Nor Shafila Khairusalleh, 25, have angered many people who accused them of being obscene and sexist.

On Sunday (July 2), Ms Nor Shafila had told mStar, The Star's Malay portal, that she could expect people to take amusing pictures with the standees, but felt that the viral images were going overboard as they were sexual in nature.

It was reported that one of the men involved has since apologised for his actions on his Instagram account.

Ms Nor Shafila became well-known after a cutout of herself holding a mineral water bottle went viral on social media.

She later "appeared" in cutouts that promoted Shell fuel.