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But Gareth Hughes, marketing manager for 42 Below Stil Vodka, has no regrets about the cheeky campaign, which he reckons has helped sell liquor worth more than $90,000.
Bottle tags for the "Find-a-bride" promotion proclaimed "Russian Women are awesome! They don't care if you watch cricket on Valentine's Day. Hell! They don't even care if you're short and fat! It's almost too good to be true."
This drew a complaint from K Salviera, who said it was insulting, disgusting and disrespectful of Russian culture, and portrayed Russian women as commodity goods.
42 Below claimed the spirit of its lighthearted promotion was that Russian brides had an excellent reputation for making life partners.
There were lots of respectable agencies in New Zealand and Russia helping people to find love, it said.
The humour hit the right note with a minority of board members.
But the majority were sour on it, saying it insulted and demeaned women, and Russian women in particular. Taking into account generally prevailing community standards, it "was likely to cause serious offence".
Mr Hughes said 42 Below had not created the concept of the Russian bride. "There are plenty of Russian women advertising themselves on the Internet as potential brides and there are thousands of men looking for that sort of thing – we're just a catalyst for bringing them together."
The competition was always designed to be a bit of a laugh and to push the boundaries without going too far. It was bound to get a reaction, he said.
The prize went to a Queenstown man, Grant Dillon, who was planning to fly to Russia at the end of the month.
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