The April Fool Archive

Playboy Invests in Rotorua    (April Fool's Day - 2009)

The tourism board of Rotorua, New Zealand (a town famous for having a peculiar rotten egg smell caused by sulphur released from nearby geysers and hot thermal springs) ran full-page ads in The New Zealand Herald and The Dominion Post noting that scientists from Italy's University of Naples had recently discovered a positive link between the town's smell and male sexual arousal. This was true. But the ads went on to claim that, as a result, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner had decided to invest in Rotorua by converting the Rotorua Museum into his Holiday Mansion. Rotorua Tourism Marketing general manager Don Gunn said that the Playboy Holiday Mansion development would likely raise a few eyebrows in the local community, but that he expected the long-term tourism benefits to be huge.


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