[Vision2020] seattletimes.com: Idaho testicle festival goes on after TV, radio ads withdrawn (fwd)

[Debbie Gray]

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Idaho testicle festival goes on after TV, radio ads withdrawn
Full story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003049260_webfestival08.html

By JOHN MILLER
The Associated Press



EAGLE, Idaho – Now that the Fire Department has agreed to drop those
racy ads from back East, the mayor has agreed to let the Rocky Mountain
Oyster Feed -- a tradition here since the 1950s -- proceed Saturday as
scheduled.

At issue are fried bull testicles, cowboy caviar. Male cattle are neutered
to make them more manageable and larger, presumably because asexual steers
have little interest in chasing cows.

The results don't turn up on steakhouse menus, but thousands of people
turn out each year for the all-you-can-eat event in this city about 10
miles west of Boise.

The tradition was news to employees at Foot, Cone and Belding, a New York
advertising agency. They were so tickled by the notion of paying $22 to
savor sliced "Idaho tendergroin" that they offered to develop the ads for
free, said Scott Pruett, treasurer of the Eagle Volunteer Firefighters
Association.

But while the event has a 50-year history, the New York approach shocked
some locals.

"All the controversy was directing attention away from the fire department
and the Rocky Mountain Oyster Feed," Pruett said Thursday. "It was better
to step back a little bit and have a meeting of the minds."

Phone calls late Thursday to Tony Hess at the agency weren't immediately
returned.

The Foot, Cone and Belding crew came up with three ads for television,
plus radio spots.

The TV ads never made the airwaves. Carried on the fire station's Web
site, they included some profanity from a cartoon bull lamenting the loss
of his barnyard jewels at a poetry slam.

Local radio stations did play some of the ads, including one with the
line, "Hey, you with the testicles? Gimme your testicles."

That was enough to shock some members of this growing community of 12,000
people.

Mayor Nancy Merrell put her foot down. She told reporters with the Boise
NBC affiliate KTVB-TV she was considering barring the Fire Department from
using the city park for the event.

But she relented when the department dropped the ads.

"They have agreed to comply," Merrell said in a statement. "The Rocky
Mountain Oyster Feed event will still take place."

Pruett, bemused by the attention the ads generated, says firefighters
thought they were funny. And while they've agreed to clip the promotion
spots, the feed is otherwise unaltered.

"The people who go, they know what they're going for," Pruett said. "They
know what they're eating."

Many East Coast folks are unaware of the cattle-country canape, also
celebrated at the beer-soaked "Testicle Festival" in Rock Creek, Mont.,
and the annual "World Championship Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival" at
Throckmorton, Texas, where contestants in a swinging-beef fryoff are
judged on the tenderness and appearance of their cowboy caviar.



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