Sexy ad for University of Moncton, New Brunswick, divides opinions

A UNIVERSITY ad campaign has been criticised for being light on learning but heavy on shots of nubile undergrads hooking up. Watch it here.

UNIVERSITY life. Seeing bands. Having bonfires on the beach. Being really, really, really ridiculously good looking. Hooking up with a righteous other in a tight sweater between the library stacks.

That’s the seductive promise of campus life at Canada’s University of Moncton, at least according to a new advertisement, which has divided critics since its first airing a week ago.

Bonfire babe ... the ad highlights extra-curricular activities rather than book-learning.

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Located in the officially bilingual province of New Brunswick, the university’s new campaign makes a concerted pitch for French-speaking students.

“At the University of Moncton our language is our pride, a force, it’s a language of progress, of business and ‘other business’,” the voiceover states (in French, naturellement).

“It’s the language of ambition, of discovery, it’s the one with which we respond and how we apply ourselves.

“Our language is French and this is your university.”

I’m with cupid ... the kiss has set tongues wagging.

The ad deploys a couple of tongue-in-cheek double entendres as the camera pans across an attractive couple kissing — again in the French style, ooh la la — in the university library.

The French word for “business” - “affaires” — can also be used in the way English-speakers would talk about having an affair, while the French for “language” — “langue” — is also the same word for “tongue”.

Marie-Noëlle Ryan, the president of the university’s professors’ and librarians’ association, told CBC news she thought the advertisement was “pathetic”.

“And it’s not that way that you will recruit serious students and people who really want to learn and have good diplomas,” she said.

Hockey hottie ... the university ice hockey team features prominently.

Originally published as Sexy ad for University of Moncton, New Brunswick, divides opinions