Ryanair's 'red hot cabin crew' ads banned for being sexist

BUDGET airline Ryanair is in trouble again with the Advertising Standards Authority over its latest campaign, which harked back to an altogether different era of aviation and sexual relations and featured "red hot" cabin crew posing in lacy underwear.
 
The press ads, which ran in The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Independent, included pictures from the airline's 'Girls of Ryanair' 2012 charity calendar and promised "red hot fares & crew!"
 
The ASA received 17 complaints claiming that the ads were sexist, "offensive and unsuitable" and objectified cabin crew. The regulator agreed and commented that "although the images were not overtly sexual in content, the appearance, stance and gaze of the women... were likely to be seen as sexually suggestive".
 
It said that the ads appeared to link female cabin crew with sexual behaviour.
 
"Ryanair defended the campaign, arguing that because the ad used images taken from the charity calendar that the flight attendants had agreed to appear in, it was not sexist and did not objectify women," said The Guardian.
 
The Irish airline and the ASA have a fraught relationship dating back many years, thanks to the airline's often laissez-faire approach to self-promotion. Last year a series of ads featuring a bikini-clad model and promises of "spring sun" had to be withdrawn because most of the destinations on offer had maximum temperatures below 10C at the time.
 
In 2008 French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife, Carla Bruni, took action after Ryanair featured a picture of them without permission in one of its ads. And the airline has also been in trouble for running ads with models dressed as schoolgirls, attacking rivals like Lastminute.com and making misleading claims.
 
But the carrier revels in its notoriety and it is not only its risque ads that have made the headlines. Outspoken Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has advocated charging customers to use the toilets during flights and once said he would like passengers to stand during flights. ·