Racy Ryanair adverts banned for being 'sexist'

Ryanair

Controversial carrier Ryanair has landed itself in hot water again - and has had two UK newspaper adverts banned after complaints they were sexist.

According to the BBC, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 17 complaints about the adverts that depicted woman posing in their underwear with the headline: "Red Hot Fares & Crew! One way from £9.99".

Around 11,000 people also signed an online petition against the ad on change.org, which also featured outraged comments, with one woman stating: "Making staff take off they're clothes to advertise air plane flights is sexist and objectifying, not to mention completely irrelevant.

"It is extremely demeaning for the professional women working on the flights and could make it a less safe work environment for them."

The airline said the adverts promoted its 2012 cabin crew charity calendar, and used images directly from it, adding that crew members had posed voluntarily for the pictures.

Ryanair also argued that you often see similar images in the media the adverts were placed in.

But the ASA did not agree, saying they believed most readers would interpret the images and the text as 'linking female cabin crew with sexually suggestive behaviour".

According to the Mirror, the ASA added: "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."

Ryanair's Stephen McNamara told the Mirror: "The PC quacks at the ASA received just 17 complaints about ads for the 2012 Ryanair calendar.

"Every year 10,000 people buy a copy of our calendar to help raise €100,000 for charity, and for this reason Ryanair will continue to advertise them."

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