A RAUNCHY Air New Zealand advertisement that features desperate older women or "cougars" preying on young men for sex has been condemned as sexist.

The spoof nature documentary reports younger men sometimes "pretend to be gay" to avoid the women but are "dragged off to their inner-city apartments and cruelly made to listen to Enya or the Eurythmics", stuff.co.nz reports.

It says cougar attacks have had a "devastating effect" on young male "herds".

The short film was made to promote Air New Zealand's offer of 60 free tickets to next month's Wellington Sevens rugby tournament.

Women over 35 are invited to email photos of themselves and their cougar hunts, while a simultaneous promotion run by a local radio station is selecting 10 young men to attend the match as cougar "meat".

The ad has sparked debate in New Zealand over whether it promotes negative stereotypes of women, or is simply a light-hearted joke.

Auckland comedian and poet Penny Ashton told stuff.co.nz the ad was sexist and "incensed" her.

"Men are not helpless. Surely if you say no a couple of times it should work?" she said.

Read more in stuff.co.nz