It seems all the news coming from Brazil lately are bad and embarrassing. One of the reasons for that is Brazilian authorities never get tired of making stupid decisions. Here's another one:

"The beautiful but violent Rio de Janeiro invited the pretty but troubled naomi campbell to be its ambassador on Friday, two days after she admitted in a New York court to throwing a mobile phone at her housekeeper."

And here's what Rio's Mayor said about it:

"She has an image that is the face of Rio de Janeiro, she could represent it abroad like nobody else,"

That's true. Like Rio, Naomi is a mix of beauty and violence. She can really represent the essence of Rio de Janeiro.

Now, that's the image you want to show, the message you want to send? Are you serious? I can imagine the slogan:

"Come to Rio de Janeiro, a city with very high levels of violence, but also very beautiful."

For crying out loud, nobody said the Major this is a BAD idea, and that it won't serve the city's best interest?

Sources: The Latin Americanist - Passport (Foreign Policy) - Washington Post