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A Racy Ad Campaign to Save Sea Turtles

In Mexico, a new campaign to protect endangered sea turtle eggs has been launched across the country with the help of a controversial spokesperson: Playboy model, singer and pin-up icon Dorismar.

In Latin America, sea turtle eggs are reputed to boost male potency -- and that myth has driven some species of turtle to near extinction. The California-based group Wildcoast and a slate of Mexican conservation organizations enlisted the help of Dorismar, the Mexican musical supergroup Los Tigres del Norte and other Latino celebrities to get out the message that sea turtle are worth saving.

Dorismar's suggestive ads show glamour photos of the scantily clad, busty model with words that translate to: "My man doesn't need turtle eggs." The model also made a personal appeal in a recent appearance on "Sabado Gigante" with Don Francisco, known as the "Johnny Carson of Latin America." The show reaches a global audience of more than 100 million in 42 nations.

Not everyone welcomes Dorismar's personal appeal -- women's groups, for example, say the ads are demeaning. But Wildcoast officials say the campaign is getting the message out to the people who matter most: men who eat turtle eggs and meat for their supposed sexual powers.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Lulu Garcia-Navarro is the host of Weekend Edition Sunday and one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. She is infamous in the IT department of NPR for losing laptops to bullets, hurricanes, and bomb blasts.