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Boise restaurant River City Bagels found out this concept this week when an ad in the Boise Weekly caused a public stir and, consequently, long lines at the downtown shop. The small ad on the side of an inside page features a stack of fresh bagels and reads, “Our bagels are like vaginas: What’s not to love?” Sure, it sounds like a very direct slogan applying the “sex sells” ploy, but it wasn’t supposed to be so arbitrary; there was an accidental oversight that neither owner Jodi Kummermehr nor the ad designer nor the Boise Weekly noticed before it appeared in thousands of copies of the free alternative weekly. “It is Vagina Monologues (the play) season, and we sponsor the event every year,” said Kummermehr. “The ad was supposed to say, ‘Proud sponsor of the Vagina Monologues,’ so it all made sense, but we didn’t catch it.” Kummermehr isn’t upset or embarrassed though; traffic through the store has increased significantly and everyone wants to talk about the ad -- J. Gelband/New West Boise.

Question: Is this going too far? Or is it smart promotion?

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