Prince Harry, Las Vegas is outraged -- in a silly kind of way

Bare-naked photos of Prince Harry in Las Vegas that surfaced this week gave Sin City an opportunity to do what it does best: Seize the marketing day!

The city’s tourism agency took out a full-page ad in USA Today on Friday, not to embarrass Harry but to stand by him -- sort of. It of course invoked the overly uttered “code” (a.k.a., marketing campaign), “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

(For those wondering where Harry was playing strip billiards, it was inside a spacious VIP room at Wynn’s Encore Tower Suites, according to E! online.

“For Shame!” the ad reads in huge type. It asks Vegas visitors to shun those who exploited the third-in-line heir to the British throne by depriving them of “bottle service. No bikini clad girls. No Bucatini from Batali. In other words, we will not play with them anymore.”

It then asks folks to “know the code” and take an online pledge to swear off “tweeting, tagging, posting, telling, whispering, emoting, defining, drawing up, writing about or in any way” about goings-ons in Vegas.

OK, very funny. On a slightly (and only slightly) more serious note, Cathy Tull, senior vice president of marketing for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which created the ad, said in a statement: “Las Vegas is a place to celebrate adult freedom, freedom that even celebrities and royals can enjoy.”

I’m not sure if this helps Harry, who, apparently, is turning down any requests for photos from fans since the scandal broke, TMZ says. Playgirl and Chippendales Las Vegas all-naked revue want Harry to strip for them, and some media sources say more women have come forward with photos of Harry on his excellent adventure.

In Britain, the Sun ran some of the risque photos in print with the headline “Heir It Is!” Enough said.