Kiwi Bank launched green sheep character, Buck, in June with an ad campaign designed to encourage customers to stop ‘following the flock’.

However, Buck quickly drew a different type of attention with internet users deeming her too attractive and making references to stereotypes about New Zealanders.

The bank initially responded with copyright takedown requests, but this caused interest in the character to snowball even making an appearance on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight. One social media user, reported by CTV, said: “what if we ALL say the kiwibank sheep is sexy. They can’t get us all.”

The situation has now culminated in an open letter to Kiwibank from New Zealand’s Free Speech Union accusing the company of censorship.

The letter read: “Kiwibank is entitled to enforce its copyright, but not to use it as a content filter … Using copyright to remove speech a company dislikes is censorship, even when the subject is a sheep.”