Mini-tempest
over a leggy dame in flight
Flight attendants in a bunch over SI campaign
By Toni Fitzgerald
Mar 5, 2010
Certain alternative media campaigns just don't fly
with everyone, and that's literally the case for a busty pin-up girl
positioned prominently on the nose of a Boeing 737.
The blonde beauty wears a curve-hugging black one-piece bathing suit.
She has a pink flower behind one ear, a crooked elbow behind the other,
and a come-hither look on her face.
Her long legs are propped up in front of her, just barely blocking the
words on a large purple circle behind her that says "Sports Illustrated
Swimsuit 2010."
The ad, on the nose of the budget flyer AirTran, was part of a campaign
for Sports Illustrated's annual issue featuring women in scanty outfits.
This very retro pinup, done in the spirit of Betty Grable pinups that
appeared on fighter planes in World War II, wasn't up long before it
got a reaction, and it wasn't a salute to America's fighting spirit.
AirTran's mostly female flight attendants were outraged the company
would even consider putting something so suggestive on its planes.
Earlier this week, the Association of Flight Attendants sent a memo to its members airing their beef with the image.
"It is our feeling that this is not only contrary to the family image
that this company tries to promote, but also potentially offensive to
their female employees, the majority of their flight attendants who
will have to work on this aircraft," said the memo.
The AFA claimed the ad sent a message that women are nothing but sex
objects, creating "a potential for verbal abuse by male passengers."
Nonsense, sniffed AirTran. The company insisted that the ad was tasteful, subdued and classy.
The campaign ended this week and the image was removed before the AFA's
complaints picked up much in the way of media attention, perhaps
unfortunately for SI, which could have benefited from the extra
exposure.
Though blogs were starting to pick up on the news yesterday, so far
coverage had been limited to just a handful of newspapers and Gawker,
which suggested balancing the pinup girl with a naked image of Playboy
himbo Levi Johnston to even things out.
The lesson here seems to be that any time you carry an SI Swimsuit
Issue ad, you're going to be awash in controversy. A much more
over-the-top outdoor SI promotion last year with Southwest Airlines
prompted an even bigger public outcry.
Southwest wrapped a Boeing 737 with the cover image of Bar Refaeli,
showing the model about to doff her teeny-tiny bikini bottom, prompting
some to call it a "flying porn ad."
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