Slapping down the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority which didn’t like a recent ad Ryanair ran in three newspaper which featured an image of a model in a school girl outfit with the copy, “Hottest. back to School Fares,” Ryanair head of communications Peter Sherrard said, “This isn’t advertising regulation, it is simply censorship. This bunch of unelected self-appointed dimwits are clearly incapable of fairly and impartially ruling on advertising.”
Sherrard went on to site the common practice of British newspapers which feature topless women within their pages on a regular basis and stated the airline would not withdraw the ad as requested by the ASA which received 13 complaints.
We love this. Granted, the ad may fall into the category of objectifying women but relative to the aforementioned practice of nude women in the pages of newspaper, it’s fairly harmless. In America and ad like this would never run. In fact, it would never even be created. If it were, the creatives who concepted it would be fired and sent of to some sort of school for perverted boys. If the ad did run, an army of cause groups would be on Ryanair’s ass in seconds decrying them for destroying the very fabric of American society.
Perhaps those offended should be more concerned with what comes up when a search for “schoolgirl” is performed on Google.
