What planet do the people live on who sit around dreaming up these wacky plans to leverage publicity for their brand from the Rugby World Cup ?
Following the adidas fiasco - if the price of that jersey had been any higher it might have been cheaper to buy an All Black in match strip and throw the player away - the abortive Telecom ad has provided us with a huge national cringe we could have done without the world seeing.
The campaign, dumped before it started, featured former All Black skipper Sean Fitzpatrick driving a car shaped like a pink fist (a fist?) and intoning the importance of national sexual abstinence as a way of supporting the ABs in "the great battle of 2011". (Telecom, not being a tournament sponsor, may not use the R, W or C word).
Quite how a lack of action in the bedrooms of the country would inspire unbeatable on-field fury in the 30 blokes whose names will be read out on Tuesday remains a mystery, particularly since expert opinion holds that celibacy doesn't help athletic performance even in the abstainer himself.
And the symbol of this campaign - a black rubber band - bore a wince-inducing resemblance to the things farmers use to make sure little lambs don't turn into big rams.
