A resident has expressed concerns that companies are taking advantage of Johnny Barnes to "turn him into an advertising billboard''.

The man, who preferred not to be named, made his opinion known to The Royal Gazette after he saw Mr. Barnes doing his usual morning greeting routine on the roundabout at the entrance to East Broadway in a T-shirt that was advertising International Bonded Couriers' new express delivery service, ZipX.

He said: "I've been enjoying Johnny Barnes ever since he started out and when I drove past today it just made me so annoyed that a company was using him to make money.'' The man asked: "Why is it that, these days, everything has to be turned into a commercial? "Is he making money out of it? Because I would like to know just how much it costs to rent Johnny Barnes for the day.'' A spokesman for IBC was not happy the company's move was drawing criticism.

The spokesman explained why the company had asked Mr. Barnes to advertise their product.

"It was just decided that it was a good idea,'' he said. "We stand by our decision to do this because it was entirely up to Mr. Barnes. If he had said `no', then we would have backed off. But he said it was all right.'' The spokesman revealed that the company had, in fact, had a good deal of positive feedback about the idea.

The man at the centre of the dispute, however, Mr. Barnes explained he had no strong feelings about it one way or the other.

"A number of companies and organisations have asked me to do this sort of thing,'' he said. "I don't mind doing it. They didn't pay me, but they said they would give a certain amount of money to the charity of my choice.

"There are all types of people in the world who do things for different reasons and if some people want to use me to sell their product it's up to them.

"I didn't say `no' because I really don't mind.'' Mr. Barnes described an incident a few years ago when another company asked if they could put his face on a T-shirt to try and sell it.

"One of the company's secretaries came up to me later and said: `They're making a lot of money out of you','' he recalled.

"I didn't mind this though. I do what I do to make people happy and if people use that for their own purposes then so be it.''