Hef’s Rotorua holiday home April Fool’s Day prank

Hugh Hefner’s new holiday home – a “boost” for Rotorua tourism

After various newspapers published articles about the recent research findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, where scientists at Italy’s University of Naples had discovered a link between hydrogen sulphide – the gas that gives Rotorua (New Zealand) its rotten egg smell – and male sexual arousal, KingSt Advertising saw an opportunity for an April Fool’s Day prank to raise awareness of Rotorua’s natural aphrodisiac properties.

They ran full page “articles” in The New Zealand Herald and The Dominion Post, and released PR kits announcing that the research findings had caught Hugh Hefner’s attention – and that excited by the architectural similarities to the Playboy Mansion, Hugh had brokered a deal with the Rotorua Trust to convert the final stage of the Rotorua Museum development into his Playboy Holiday Mansion.

View the video interview with Hugh Hefner at www.rotoruaNZ.com

Agency: KingSt Advertising

Viral production: Konrad Smith, Patrick Hui