| This contest is fueled by the following news: |
|  Earlier this month, the Dutch online reservations company, Hotels.nl, began outfitting sheep in royal blue and waterproof blankers that bear the company's corporate logo. The company is paying $1.23 per day per sheep for the ads. About 144 sheep in flocks scattered throughout the Netherlands are now part of the company's sheep based advertising campaign. With that said, the sheep campaign is causing a bit of a backlash in the country. The town of Skarsterlan started fining Hotels.nl €1,000 a day for sheep that wear the branded blankets. The city's officials have stated that livestock advertising violates the town's ban on advertising along the highways. Hotels.nl indicates that it is prepared to pay the fines. However, the company says that it plans to fight the ban on sheep shirt advertising in court. From the time the sheep campaign started, Hotels.nl sales are up 15 percent, according to Miechel Nagel, who is the chief executive officer of the four year old company that is headquartered in Groningen. He is contemplating expanding the ad campaign despite the fines now being imposed in one locale. A Dutch horse breeder, André Groen, actually came up with the concept. Easy Green Promotions, based in Leiden, created what it calls "Lease a Sheep Shirt-Sponsoring" which led to the present Hotels.nl ad campaign. With a goal of expanding to 25,000 branded sheep in the Netherlands, Jozef Mazereeuw is presiding over the project for Easy Green Promotions. He is working to strike deals with even more sheep farmers at the present time. |
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