AUCKLAND - A parade of topless, motorcycle-riding strippers scheduled to take place in Auckland this month has been cancelled to preserve the Rugby World Cup's family atmosphere, organisers said Monday.
Sex industry entrepreneur Steve Crow has organised "Boobs on Bikes" parades, featuring topless strippers and porn stars riding pillion on motorcycles, in cities across New Zealand for the past eight years.
The next event was scheduled for Auckland on September 24, coinciding with a crunch pool match pitting the All Blacks against France at the Eden Park stadium in New Zealand's largest city.
Crow planned to have 20 topless women, each featuring bodypaint in the colours of a World Cup team, ride through the city centre ahead of the match.
But the businessman announced on Monday that he was cancelling the parade, saying there had been a public backlash against the idea of linking nudity to the World Cup, the largest event ever staged in New Zealand.
"For the first time in the history of boobs on bikes, the tide of public opinion is most definitely against us holding this event at the date and time proposed due to the 'family nature' of the big rugby thingy that is happening all over N.Z. at this time," he said in a statement.
Crow cited an online poll which showed 68 per cent of respondents did not want the parade to proceed during the World Cup.
"So, and in keeping with our longstanding belief in democracy, as much as it pains us to do so, we are cancelling," he said.
| 'Nude Blacks' bare all for rugby fun Click on thumbnail to view (Photos: AFP & Reuters) | ||||
 |  |  | ||
 |  |  | ||
 |  |  | ||
 |  |  | ||
For more photos, click here. |
Conservative lobby group Family First, which had called on city authorities to ban the "offensive" parade, welcomed the backdown.
"Families are the real winners, but so too is the image of New Zealand which is being beamed to the world because of the Rugby World Cup," the group's national director Bob McCoskrie said.
The parade is not the first promotional stunt to be cancelled after attempting to take advantage of the huge public interest in New Zealand during the World Cup.
Telecom Corp., a major All Blacks' sponsor, last month pulled an advertising campaign urging New Zealand supporters abstain from sex during the six-week tournament as a way of showing support for the home team.
The campaign, featuring slogans such as "abstain for the game", was cancelled after criticism from Prime Minister John Key and former All Black captain Brian Lochore, who labelled it "crass, degrading and disgusting".
And plans to stage "the running of the sheep" down Auckland's main street were dropped after animal welfare activists raised concerns about the event.
The event would have involved about 1,000 sheep being herded down Queen Street, accompanied by sheep dogs and bikini-clad models riding quad bikes, in a light-hearted take on the running of the bulls festival in Spain's Pamplona.
