Automakers spend millions at the Detroit Auto Show to carefully script flashy introductions for their new models that stand out among the wall-to-wall press conferences at Cobo Hall. Chrysler, which has a history of dropping cars from the ceiling and smashing them through plate-glass windows, came up with a new gimmick this year that it might want to steer clear of in the future. To introduce its macho new Dodge Ram pickup truck, Chrysler corralled 150 Texas longhorns (the bull type, not the football type) to ride herd with its truck in the streets of downtown Detroit.

But when the Ram broke free of the running of the bulls to receive its close-up in a press conference just outside Cobo Hall, the longhorns had other ideas. While Chrysler President Jim Press gamely attempted to describe the truck’s new features, the longhorns got, well, horny. They began to mount each other, causing the giggling crowd to look away from Press and watch what appeared to be Animal Planet’s newest reality show. Noticing he was losing the crowd, Press joked: “The bulls just want to see the truck.”

The longhorns’ cowboy handlers attempted to settle down the frisky beasts, which milled and mooed just a few feet away from Press and his truck. But then the cattle began moseying a little too close to the fascinated journalists, who had their cameras trained on the herd, not the truck. Suddenly, someone screamed as a longhorn nearly gored her and a cameraman dove for cover to avoid having his lens speared. At this point, Press used his best schoolmarm voice to overcome the upstaging steers: “OK,” he said, “look at the truck.” After all, there’s a lot riding on the Ram, Chrysler’s top selling model. But it was too late. The cows had won the crowd, and Chrysler learned an old Hollywood lesson: Don’t share the stage with kids of animals.