Kiwibank, the New Zealand state-owned bank, introduced Buck, a bright green, brown-eyed AI sheep mascot meant to promote its services with cheerful videos of her riding a bus, drinking coffee and getting a haircut.

According to Times Now and Hindustan Times, the campaign took an unexpected turn when a social media post sexualising the mascot went viral, reportedly drawing millions of views.

The bank responded by filing multiple copyright claims in an attempt to stop unauthorised use of Buck's image in explicit memes.

Rather than stay silent, Kiwibank released another AI-assisted video in which Buck addresses the content directly: "There's been some stuff made about me – put on the internet. And if you saw what I had seen, you'd be shocked... You know what really ruffles my fleece? This happens a lot. It happens to a lot of people."

The post was captioned "Jokes aside... the internet can be a weird place" and explained that Buck was created by New Zealand visual effects artists, animated with AI editing tools, voiced by a Kiwi actress and filmed in Auckland.

A spokesperson told The Guardian the bank was dealing with "explicit and harmful content being shared using Buck's image" and that "doing nothing wasn't the right thing to do".

According to Hindustan Times, the row reached American late-night TV when John Oliver picked it up on Last Week Tonight, calling the bank's crackdown "completely counterproductive".

He noted that in the first five weeks of the campaign six of ten TikToks the bank posted featured Buck, but that in the 18 posts since, "the sheep is in exactly none of them. Basically, the sheep has gone."

Hindustan Times also reports that the Free Speech Union wrote an open letter to Kiwibank CEO Steve Jurkovich arguing the posts were jokes about a mascot — one used the bank's own unaltered advertising image with the joke only in the caption — and demanded the bank withdraw the notices.

The Buck saga has become a test case for how brands handle internet misuse of their characters.

Kiwibank's position, as reported by both outlets, is that its concern was serious because harmful content was spreading; the spokesperson acknowledged to The Guardian that the bank's response itself became part of the online conversation.

Critics quoted by Hindustan Times argue copyright notices were aimed at satire rather than infringement, since the underlying image belonged to the bank.

With the mascot now absent from Kiwibank's own TikToks, the episode highlights the risk that fighting an explicit meme cycle can do more cultural damage than the memes themselves.