Ryanair sexy stewardess ad campaign is banned by British authorities

Irish airline slammed for sexist promotion featuring undressed employees

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2012 Ryanair Cabin Crew Charity Calendar launch. Chief Executive of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary pictured with the Girls of Ryanair. The 2012 Ryanair Cabin Crew Charity Calendar has been banned by the ASA.

Photo by Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

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PHOTOS - Slideshow of the 2012 Ryanair Calendar

Michael O’Leary and Ryanair have been slammed for sexist adverts which objectified women.
The budget airline boss has been hauled over the coals for a promotion which featured a scantily clad stewardess in lingerie.

O’Leary, no stranger to controversy, has run foul of the British advertising standards authority, ASA, over the campaign which has now been banned.

Already under fire for his annual charity calendar featuring cabin crew in lingerie, O’Leary has been ordered to stop the saucy campaign after thousands of complaints.

The British authority found the ads to be ‘sexist’ after analysing the complaints, including one from a Ryanair flight attendant who claimed it portrayed cabin crew as glamour models.

The adverts ran with the strap line ‘Red Hot Fares & Crew’ and were deemed offensive after thousands of people backed calls for the promotion to be axed.

The British body also said 17 complainants lodged personal grievances and concluded that the campaign was likely to cause ‘widespread offence’.

In a statement, the authority said that one image, entitled ‘Ornella February’, which showed a model pulling down the top of her pants with a thumb, was particularly ‘sexually suggestive’.

In its defence, Ryanair said that all the images came from its 2012 charity calendar, which raised over a hundred thousand dollars.

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The airline also claimed that the pictures were not sexist because members of staff had volunteered to produce the images.

The advertising watchdog disagreed however. A statement from ASA read: “We also 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.

“Although we acknowledged that the women in the ads had consented to appear in the calendar, we considered that the ads were likely to cause widespread offence, when displayed in a national newspaper.”

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