Las Vegas Weekly

March 25, 2009 · 8:54 AM

Sex sells pro beach volleyball tour’s hard-bodied hunks and bikini babes

By Robin Leach

Photo: AVP

Adhering to Madison Avenue’s mantra that sex sells, a new ad campaign for a major September sports event in Las Vegas is raising eyebrows. Vegas DeLuxe has a first look at the close-up photos of the bronzed bodies of the hard-bodied hunks and the girls in the briefest of bikinis!

It’s for the three-day competition of the Association of Volleyball Professionals Pro-Beach Volleyball Tour at Mandalay Bay from Sept. 17-19. In all fairness, the athletes do compete wearing swimsuits, but it’s the focus on bare chests, rippling muscles and tight buns that has grabbed all the attention.

It was the players themselves who were happy to undress for the ads. Our hometown hero Kerri Walsh was in the group of athlete-models of Phil Dalhausser, Holly McPeak, Mike Morrison, Todd Rogers, Sean Cott and Tyra Turner who bared their bods! However, in the interest of honesty, the beautiful, backside bikini bottom shot was posed by a professional tush model!

Attorney Kristine Lefebvre, who oversees AVP’s marketing, merchandising and public relations as vice president of business development, dreamed up the sexy and provocative campaign. Kristine is married to chef Ludo Lefebvre, who left Lavo at the Palazzo here after its initial six months to return to L.A.

Kristine told me that her sexy bodies ad campaign has a $500,000 budget for the upcoming volleyball tour. She and her ad team picked through hundreds of photos before settling on the finals you see here.

She said: “We know the recession is impacting sports crowds even before our tour gets underway. We know people only want to spend money on necessities. We needed something hot that was really attention grabbing. Dealing with the down economy is no day at the beach, so we really had to show people that a day at our beach is well spent. We have the greatest athletes stripped down for a hot sport, and it’s getting us the recognition we wanted.

“The ads have given us brand and sport awareness. We wanted to capitalize on how successful volleyball was last summer in the Beijing Olympics. Many of the U.S. team members were our AVP players, so, as our expression goes, we want to keep the ball rolling.”

Kristine isn’t fazed by the controversy, as she has posed for the camera herself. The VP posed for the June 2007 cover and centerfold of Playboy magazine after competing as a contestant on Donald Trump’s NBC show The Apprentice.

The AVP tour starts this weekend in Panama City, Fla., and rolls through Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Houston, San Francisco and, of course, hometown Huntington Beach, Calif. After Las Vegas Sept.17-19, the tour concludes in Phoenix Sept. 24-26.

The sexy photos will turn up everywhere, and the bikini bottom ad will be used as large outdoor posters. Watch out for them when they pop up all over Vegas this summer! “I don’t consider it cheesecake art,” Kristine says. “It’s a celebration of the human form. Yes, the athletes are on display, but it’s not exploitive.”

Holly McPeak, who will be coming to Vegas for the matches here, said: “It’s eye-grabbing, but I don’t find it racy. Volleyball is a sexy sport because our uniforms are bikinis and swim shorts! They’re functional because the less material the better. We’re comfortable in our skins as world-class athletes. And an athlete’s body in motion is art.”

Kristine summed up: “There wasn’t a bad-looking body in the bunch. The campaign is about the sport and not the partying that goes on at the matches. My mission is to get people to experience AVP for the first time, and then once we’ve got them there, keep them as a fan. If the ads accomplish that, I succeeded.”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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