AN advertising campaign to help save endangered sea turtles in Mexico has run aground on opposition from feminists who claim it panders to machismo.

The campaign features Dorismar, one of the most popular models in Latin America, peering seductively out of posters in a variety of costumes from a sexy swimsuit to skimpy shorts and cowboy hat. “My man doesn’t need turtle eggs,” says the slogan, “because he knows they don’t make him more potent.”

The message is aimed at Mexican men, for many of whom the soft-skinned, ping pong ball-sized eggs are as common a bar snack as peanuts, with an added appeal: the belief that they add fire to a man’s sexual performance.

“We are talking to a certain type of man,” said Fay Crevoshay of the Californian conservation group Wildcoast, which is behind the campaign. “He will look at this and will get the message.”

A counter-campaign by a Mexican feminist group, however, could put paid to the Californian effort. “We are not against campaigns that protect turtles and their eggs, just the way in which they use the woman as a stereotype or sexual object,” said a National Women’s Institute statement.

The intricacies of what Wildcoast called “target marketing” were lost on the group, whose complaint could prevent the posters being put up as planned in September. Next month is high season for poachers who ambush the turtles as they crawl up Pacific beaches to lay hundreds of eggs at a time. The meat is sold for food, the shell for combs and the eggs consumed, usually raw with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lime.

Homero Aridjis, a poet and naturalist, accused the feminists of jeopardising the campaign. “This campaign is directed at men to capture the attention of the macho Mexican man who uses the turtle eggs for sexual ends,” he said.

The feminist opposition appears to be working, however. Guerrero state — one of the worst turtle poaching offenders — has withdrawn support for the advertisements.

Wildcoast said Dorismar, an Argentinian, was working for free because she supported the campaign, so she was not being exploited.

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