Radio station offers mail-order bride as prize

We've come a long way since the days of old-timey radio. For example, nobody uses the term 'walking sticks' anymore. Sound effects are electronic. And instead of not giving away humans as prizes, now we do that...

A New Zealand radio station giving away a mail-order bride. The Frisky tipped us off about Auckland's The Rock FM contest, where one lonely winner will pick from a roster of Ukrainian women (including teenagers) to have and to hold. He also gets an all-expense paid trip to her native land to collect her.

How can they do this? Legal loopholes, for starters. The station makes it clear that they're not paying for the bride's travel expenses back to New Zealand, even though they do give $2000 NZD to the winner to blow during the trip. They also changed their contest name from "Win A Wife" to the less litigious, but equally spam-y, "Win a trip to beautiful Ukraine for 12 Nights and Meet Easter European Hot Lady Who Maybe One Day You Marry."

The radio station program director has called the contest a "tongue-in-cheek idea" and the "opportunity of a lifetime". He's clearly never read anything about the abuse and dire circumstances of a bride-for-hire. The Ukraine's ambassador to New Zealand isn't laughing either. He called the contest an "indecent demonstration of low taste and cultural standards as well as utter disrespect and violation of human dignity directed not only at Ukrainian women but at the entire better part of the humankind."

There are currently two finalists for the prize on the station's website (which we are decidedly not linking to). They were selected based on their explanation of why they want to win a wife. One admitted he's unlucky in Ukrainian arranged love: he'd already traveled to the country to meet a woman, but their arrangement was canceled when he arrived. The other finalist, who is looking for a woman between the ages of 18 and 24, claims he wants a spouse for "Washing, iron[ing], f$#@ing." The winner is slated to be announced Feb. 28, unless station advertisers retract their support.

To protest the contest please join the "Stop the Rock's Win a Wife Campaign" on Facebook.

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