🚀 go-pugleaf

"Chris Holmes" <cholmes@yahoon.com> wrote in message 
news:Xns9FCF89F7167A3FN80ECL3@69.16.185.247...
> http://www.aol.com/2011/08/17/rugby-sheep-sex_n_929148.html
>
> WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- First came the idea to have bikini models
> on motorbikes drive 1,000 sheep through New Zealand's most cosmopolitan
> city. Then, the idea to urge rugby fans to abstain from sex and save their
> passion for the country's team.
>
> New Zealand is gearing up to host the Rugby World Cup next month. But its
> promotional plans are going awry, with residents complaining that some of
> the concepts for celebrating the country's culture may just as likely
> invite ridicule.
>
> "What were they thinking?" said Robyn Kippenberger, head of the Royal New
> Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), which
> opposed the planned sheep run.
>
> Organizers had planned to parade the sheep and the scantily clad women
> through downtown Auckland as a climax to festivals throughout the country
> in the build-up to the World Cup final. But they canceled those plans this
> week amid outcry from Kippenberger and others.
>
> "Maybe we try too hard," Kippenberger said.
>
> Brian Rudman, a columnist for the New Zealand Herald newspaper, wrote that
> instead of showcasing the sophisticated culture, dining and fashion of
> Auckland, the event would have portrayed the city as a sheep-shearing
> village "on steroids."
>
> "How can I justify the cringe factor to my family and friends living
> overseas?" a reader calling himself Rodney from Howick wrote in response
> to Rudman's column online. "What are we, all back-country hicks?" wrote
> another reader.
>
> Kippenberger said it would have been an embarrassment if the world were to
> see images of panting, scared and possibly injured sheep clattering down
> paved streets.
>
> Leon Grice, the director of NZ 2011 which is overseeing festival events,
> said the idea was to promote the best of New Zealand industry, from wine
> to agriculture. He said he thought the issue of animal welfare had been
> addressed previously when an Auckland SPCA officer gave the sheep run a
> thumbs-up.
>
> He noted that sheep lovers will still be able to watch sheep-shearing
> demonstrations at Auckland's Queens Wharf during the rugby tournament.
>
> Yet even as the sheep furor was dying down Wednesday, a second controversy
> gathered pace.
>
> Telecom, a sponsor of New Zealand's All Blacks rugby team, has launched a
> campaign urging New Zealanders to remain chaste, in a joking reference to
> the notion that some athletes abstain from sex before big matches to
> improve performance.
>
> The ad features former team captain Sean Fitzpatrick congratulating fellow
> New Zealanders for "selflessly stepping out into the bed chambers of this
> fine country, throwing aside your natural instincts, and your lacy
> lingerie, standing proudly in your flannelette pajamas and whispering 'I
> love you, New Zealand."
>
> The campaign has swiftly prompted scorn, with a YouTube video of the ad
> drawing comments including "Thanks for making us a laughing stock" and
> "Abstain from Telecom."
>
> Telecom spokesman Mark Watts said the campaign is aimed at "getting people
> talking, thinking, laughing, and stirring up some noise and color."
>
> Tom Agee, a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Auckland,
> said there's plenty to celebrate at the World Cup without promoters
> needing to try so hard for publicity. The All Blacks are a great team, he
> said, and New Zealand is a wonderful country with plenty to offer
> visitors. There's simply no need, he said, to resort to novelty ideas that
> could harm the country's image.
>
> "It's a dumb idea," Agee said. "I just don't think we need to do stuff
> like this."
>
>

Why don't they just have sheepdogs herd the bikini wearers through town...
Anyone that straggles gets a nip in the butt and possible loss of bikini 
bottom

That should attract a far bigger crowd.