The Red Shoes

Jaunted ran a story about the "uniform refresh" at Virgin Atlantic. This week, VS has had a few 'news' items including new routes, the launch of their first Airbus A330 aircraft and the arrival of the red shoes on female cabin crew.



Apparently, the highly successful James Bond-style ad campaign from last year, which featured crew in red patent heels, resonated so much with the travelling public that they came to expect the new level of 'glamour' on the crew serving them on flights.

The new shoes will be of a lower heels and different shape to those in the adverts, naturally, as stilettos don't exactly lend themselves to a long-haul flight.

While I did like the look in the tv spot, something about the shoes for the crew just doesn't seem quite right to me. I think the style of the new crew shoe just doesn't work in patent red. Also, with a red suit I personally think it's a bit too much red. Of course, with just a skirt and white blouse it might look fine, but I think they'd have done better to go with black. Either way, those shoes won't last two weeks before "cart toe" takes over. I hope the crew are supplied with (non patent) cabin shoes as well!

Photo: Virgin Atlantic via Jaunted.

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!