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New Zealand fans will be urged to abstain from sex during the rugby World Cup in a campaign to be fronted by former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick.
The campaign put the All Blacks at the centre of a new public relations controversy, the New Zealand Herald reported today.
The New Zealand Rugby Union is understood to have been irritated by the supposedly humorous Telecom-backed campaign, although it supported it in a statement last night.
"Abstain for the All Blacks" would start next week and is being driven by the official All Blacks' fan site, BackingBlack which was sponsored by Telecom.
The campaign asks fans to avoid sex during the World Cup to support the team.
The campaign would be fronted by Fitzpatrick and those participating would get a black rubber finger-ring to show they had signed up for the campaign.
Organisers hope the rings will galvanise fans the way Sir Peter Blake's red socks motivated fans for New Zealand's successful America's Cup yachting campaigns.
A marketing man who knew of the campaign said Telecom's advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, expected it to be controversial and he said it was "a bloody embarrassment. The rest of the world will take the piss out of us."
The campaign will run in various media and posters urging fans to "Touch, pause and don't engage" would appear in bus shelters.
Telecom director of marketing Kieren Cooney said the new campaign was intended to be "tongue-in-cheek" and was based on what they thought was New Zealand humour.
NZRU commercial manager, Paul Dalton, was asked if the All Blacks would abstain from sex.
He said their match preparations were not built around sponsors' advertising campaigns and the two should not be confused. .