April 28, 2009

Cute or Cheap? It's a Bit Lax Virgin!

A friend of mine emailed me about a new advertisement which has just started running on Australian tv. It's for V Australia, the Virgin Group's newest airline which has just started flights between Australia and LA.

Now Virgin Blue are well known for their cheeky print ads and slogans, so there's no surprise they'd try something cute with their tv ads, and they've come up with some crackers in the past. Like this one:



But this latest one leaves me a bit cold... I'm not sure if I'm biased because I'm a flight attendant, or if it's because as a woman, I feel it's a bit demeaning, or possibly both. Flight attendants have worked hard to get rid of the 'cheap and easy' stereotype, and to show that we do much more than just swan around the cabin, pouring champagne and looking pretty. I'm not sure that this ad helps. Or if, in fact, it is even cute or just cheap.

I can only imagine how much hassle the poor girls online are going to have once the guys get the idea from this ad that the girls are there to be perved at- we have enough trouble on board without ads like this encouraging it. I think it lost me when the girl perches on the arm rest of the passenger's seat with her skirt riding up- it could be done in a much classier way. Let's not mention Branson's closing line, which, in my opinion, is not cute but crass. It belongs in a sleazy bar, not a 'cool' airline's tv ad.

So, what do you think? Have a look for yourself and leave a comment!

4 comments:

  1. Would have worked better with male FAs. Now that would have been a tounge-in-cheek ad. First one's hilarious though.

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  2. I will now be flying Virgin everywhere - thanks for the pointer!

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  3. Hmmm I can see your point. I remember just before I started working for them, I had an opportunity to fly on one of their first flights in Australia. And one of the FA's was perched on the arm rest of a male older business passenger whilst reapplying her lip gloss. Certainly not the kind of style I would expect from a Flight Attendant on duty. And whilst I was working for them, there was a famous magazine advertisement and all it said was "Wanna Route?". I still have a copy of it. It was pulled shortly after, as too many crew had complained about it.

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  4. Well it's Richard Branson's airline and he's known "to be naughty"....She says "That was fun" and he says "Just wait till we get it up"...Now that's bold! I totally understand you finding it demeaning. It gives a totally wrong message but then like I said it's Branson's airline!

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