Talking Points Memo has an article about a new advertising campaign from Spirit Airlines (as of this morning the images are still available on their homepage, though I presume — hope — they’ll be taken down soon). In order to highlight their fares to coastal locations no affected by the oil spill, they created an ad campaign titled “Best Protection”:
Get it? BP? Oh, funny.
The ads show bikini-clad women sunning themselves on the beach and carry the tagline “check out the oil on our beaches.” Two examples:
Honestly, I’m just stunned. Seriously, how do these things get made? Who comes up with this, and how is it that nowhere along the line from the idea to actually putting the images up on the website does someone in authority say, “Um, I think this is a really bad idea.”
Classy, Spirit Air. Classy.
Comments 30
Lilac — June 23, 2010
Am I completely off base thinking that beaches somehow could be read as "bitches?"
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist — June 23, 2010
all I can think is how gross, orangey and leathery these 2 women look. They look like they have skin cancer. hopefully it's just Photoshopped
chickadee — June 23, 2010
To be fair, they could be referring to the oily sheen that oozes off of their advertising team.
BradMillersHero — June 23, 2010
Hey, look! Spirit Airlines apologized: http://www.spiritair.com/PressReleaseDetails.aspx?number=20100622
"It is unfortunate that some have misunderstood our intention with today’s beach promotion."
Yeah, they are sorry you caught their sexist joking about the oil spill.
Yay.
pg — June 23, 2010
Some of the comments at TPM are precious:
"Give me a break, you will never divorce sex from advertising, nor should you."
[biffs off to Google language tools for translation]
"Do not interfere with my male privilege! You women will never be anything but the sex class and you better STFU about it!"
Ames — June 23, 2010
No, no, no, Gwen, Spirit Airlines is just trying to market to all those women who are at loose ends now that the L-Word has been canceled.
(Does anyone in marketing ever consider that these kinds of ads have the potential for positioning the female viewer as a lesbian or are they just too much the Mad Men wannabe's to see it?)
Amadi — June 23, 2010
This would be the same Spirit Airlines that shut down for several days just a week ago because of a protracted labor dispute with their pilots which led to a strike. I'm not surprised that they're grasping at the worst sorts of straws to try to make up for lost revenue. When in doubt, exploit women! (And a massive ecological tragedy as well, why not? Not like sea turtles fly on airplanes, haha.)
Gina — June 23, 2010
I believe Spirit is the airline that advertised "Many Islands, Low Fares" a few summers ago, with the abbreviation MILF in the ads. They claimed to have no idea what it meant prior to people writing in to complain. So yeah, Spirit is just an entirely sleazy company.
nomadologist — June 23, 2010
People who apologize by saying, "Sorry if you misunderstood, it wasn't our intention to..." need to realize that it's not your intention that counts, but the effects of what you did or said. People say things that are racist/sexist/etc. without ever intending to and without even realizing what they are saying/doing is racist or sexist. Blaming the person who points out the offensiveness for misreading their intent shows nothing but arrogance and an unwillingness to examine oneself.
Yeah, that last sentence was an ugly one, but I hope it made sense ;)
Visualizing the Gulf Oil Leak » Sociological Images — July 5, 2010
[...] posts: using the oil spill to advertise cheap flights, should we clean up oil-soaked wildlife?, the Gulf oil industry, BP buys Google search terms, BP [...]
Oliver J — July 21, 2023
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