New Zealand bank trying to stop people saying they want to f*ck its sheep mascot

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Kiwibank says it wants to ‘protect others from harmful content’, but for every lustful post killed by a legal threat, another 10 take its place.

“I WANT TO F*CK THE KIWIBANK SHEEP,” the post reads. When it was originally sent out on X by the account @ehukuu on July 24, those words were accompanied by a gif of Kiwibank’s green-maned mascot Buck admiring her stylish new haircut. If you look at it now though, the gif is gone, replaced by a blank grey square containing 14 thudding words: “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.”

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The lustful thoughts about Buck had been bubbling for a little while before @ehukuu sent their capslocked post. Back on July 18, the account @jestermaxxing posted “They’re just rumours man. Kiwis don’t think sheep are sexy… Kiwibank’s new sheep mascot,” alongside the picture of Buck at the hairdresser. That post only garnered 21 likes. @ehukuu’s more direct missive brought the sentiment into the mainstream, gathering more than 5,000 likes from fellow Buck admirers. Momentum grew further thanks to a quote tweet from @MaoistStdEn reading “Years of effort to convince the world New Zealanders don’t want to frick sheep has gone down the drain in one tweet”. It went even more viral, gathering around 93,000 likes and nearly 5,000 reposts.

Kiwibank isn’t the first organisation to have its mascot sexualised. Kellogg’s Frosties’ figurehead Tony the Tiger had to beg furries to stop sending him porn in 2016. McDonald’s leaned into the phenomenon with its sexy Grimace bus, while Duolingo’s owl Duo has a disconcertingly horny social media presence. Thanks to her viral fame, Kiwibank’s Buck became the latest mascot to find a home in people’s rich fantasy lives. Bluesky’s thriving furry community started posting their own images of her. Though The Spinoff hasn’t viewed them, it understands some were quite pornographic.

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