Those racy ads aren’t Hunky Dory with me, says protester

Spectators enjoying a rugby match in Belfast got more than their ticket’s worth yesterday when a half-dressed woman stormed on to the pitch and threw a bag of crisps over herself.

These weren’t just any crisps but Hunky Dorys — snacks that have provoked controversy since they launched their raunchy advertisements, featuring scantily-clad women rugby players.

The Mens Salver Final seven-a-side tournament was taking place yesterday at Carrick RFU club between Autobots and KKC.

At half-time players and spectators got a taste of the real thing when Belfast Harlequins Ladies prop Sorcha Chipperfield ran out on to the pitch and shouted: “This is for Hunky Dorys”.

She stripped down to her shorts and bra and performed a tongue-in-cheek sexy routine, which climaxed in dousing herself with a bag of the offending crisps.

Sorcha, a drama student at Queen’s University, said her impromptu performance was “a bit of fun, but also to make a point”.

“I think the adverts sexualise women’s rugby in the wrong way,” she told the Belfast Telegraph. “I wouldn’t have a problem with the ads if they showed actual women rugby players instead of very skinny models rolling around in the dirt. So I decided to do it to make a point and because it’s funny.”

Sorcha revealed that she had streaked last year at the same match for a dare. “Maybe it’s become a bit of a tradition but I’m very comfortable with how I look, and I had a good reason for doing it this year,” she said.

The Harlequins player said her team-mates had mixed views about the advertising campaign: “A couple, like me, are opposed to it, but a couple of the girls are gay and they think the ads are great.”

Advertising regulators on both sides of the border have received more than 220 complaints about the ads.

Irish Rugby Football Union spokesman Padraig Power said

the ads, emblazoned with the tagline ‘Proud Sponsors of Irish Rugby’, were “tasteless and base and quite simply unacceptable”.

Raymond Coyle, chief executive of Largo Foods said: “I’ve apologised to anyone that has been offended but the general consensus we’ve had is that it is a bit of fun and I think the photographs are great and sensitively done.”