BRITISH newspaper, The Guardian, has apologised for running advertisements
for budget airline Ryanair after UK's advertising watchdog banned them for
being sexist.
A series of Ryanair ads were featured in the newspaper with female flight
attendants in lingerie with the slogan "Red Hot Fares & Crew".
Thousands of people signed an online petition led by a cabin crew worker
against the advertising campaign launched last year, while the Advertising
Standards Agency (ASA) received 17 formal complaints.
It concluded the ads for the Irish carrier, which had appeared in national
newspapers, were likely to cause "widespread offence".
One image, entitled "Ornella February" and showing a model pulling down her
underwear with her thumb, was especially "sexually suggestive", it said.
Ryanair, which has courted controversy in the past, argued that the
promotion used images from its 2012 cabin crew charity calendar which staff
members had volunteered to produce.
But the ASA said it "considered that most readers would interpret these
images, in conjunction with the text 'Red hot fares & crew!!!' and the names of
the women, as linking female cabin crew with sexually suggestive behaviour."
More than 5,000 people had signed up to support an online campaign against
the advertising, led by a flight attendant named only as Ghada.
On the petition at change.org, she wrote, "I'm a member of cabin crew. I
love my job and take it seriously, so I was disgusted to see this Ryanair ad
which basically portrays cabin crew as glamour models.
"My work colleagues, many of whom are male, work hard with me to ensure the
safety of our passengers.
"Safety is our number-one priority, not the brand of our underwear... No
other profession would get away with depicting women in this way."
A spokeswoman for newspaper said the ad appeared in the newspaper by
accident after a "system breakdown", which meant that it was not pre-vetted
before it appeared, reported The Guardian.
"The advert in question – which also ran in other quality newspapers –
appeared in some editions of the Guardian in error due to a systems breakdown
that normally allows us to vet adverts before they are printed," she said.
"We regret that it caused offence to some of our readers and we apologised
personally to those who complained about it at the time."
Ryanair sparked outrage in 2009 when chief Michael O'Leary said that
passengers could be charged to use toilets on its planes, a statement he later
admitted was a publicity stunt.
In 2008 the ASA banned an advertisement for the airline that showed a model
dressed as a schoolgirl and the strapline "Hottest back to school fares".
Warning: some readers may find the full ad on the next page
offensive.
The Ryanair advertisement that has been banned by ASA.
The following pictures are publicity photos of the 2012 Ryanair calendar
launched in November last year.
Chief Executive of Ryanair (centre) with the cabin crew at the Alexander Hotel,
UK.
Ryanair flight attendants in lingerie posing with the 2012 edition of the
annual calendar.
The airline comes up with the annual calendar to raise money for charity.
This year the airline selected the ‘Butterfly Children’ of the DEBRA charity
from over 400 applicants to receive the proceeds from calendar sales, according
to The Daily Mail.
It hoped to raise up to £85,000 (S$169,000) to help children and families
living with the epidermolysis bullosa skin condition.
Since the first charity calendar was published in 2008, the airline raised a
total of £430,000 to date, said The Daily Mail.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary (centre) in a publicity shot for the
2012 calendar.
