An advertisement for Air New Zealand that portrays older, single women as cougars who prey on young men is to end on Monday after receiving complaints from both male and female rape victims in New Zealand.

The word ‘cougar’ has become a popular term used to describe a sexually aggressive older woman who hunts or younger men, with Courtney Cox starring in the recent TV comedy ‘Cougar Town’.

An spoof documentary by Air New Zealand released on the internet, promoting a competition to win tickets to a rugby tournament, tells of a so-called cougar starving herself during the day, then ‘hunting large slabs of meat late at night’, by stalking young men at a bar.

The voiceover says that in spite of the men’s plea to ward off the woman’s advances, the cougar has ‘not tasted fresh meat for days’ and drags her victims to her inner-city apartment, making them listen to ‘Enya or the Eurthymics’.

The promotion is part of Air New Zealand’s Grabaseat promotion which encouraged women aged over 35 years old to send in images of themselves to compete for tickets to next month’s Wellington Sevens.

Spokesman for Grabaseat Duane Perrot said the campaign was aimed to take a light-hearted view to kick off the New Year, and most people aw it as a celebration of the quirky sense of humour which Kiwis are renowned for.

He went on to say that they have been overwhelmed by entries and are closing the competition.

However all the feedback hasn’t been positive, with New Zealand’s Rape Prevention Education labelling the ad as appalling, disgusting and degrading to women, adding that some staff at the airline were also concerned about the promotion.

Director Kim McGregor said that they find it degrading that it was encouraging potentially harmful behaviour, and that complaints had been received from both male and females who have been raped and are in a very distressed state that their situation is being laughed at and made out to be humorous.