Published: January 29, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
Spirit Airlines Ads Vulgar: "Enjoy MILF (Many Islands, Low Fare)
By Robert Paul Reyes
"In the 1960's the airlines depicted stewardesses as erotic servants in their advertisements. The "girls" catered to the creature comforts of the mostly male business travelers, and the subliminal message was: If you get lucky one of the girls might even satisfy your sexual fantasies.
But women have come a long way baby, and female flight attendants are no longer treated like glorified hookers, right?
Wrong!
"Flight attendants and pilots for Spirit Airlines Inc. want the company to pull a series of sexually suggestive advertisements, along with a new requirement they wear a patch advertising Bud Light on service aprons.
Patricia A. Friend, head of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, complained in a letter to Spirit executives this month. When the airline refused to change the ad campaigns and the aprons were handed out Monday, the union issued a public statement Tuesday.
Some of Spirit's ads invite customers to enjoy its DD's [deep discounts] and 'MILF' [many islands, low fare] specials - double entendres also referring to large breasts and a crude acronym popularized in the 1999 movie "American Pie" that describes an attractive mother." FoxNews.Com
The commercials and advertisements of Spirit Airlines are crass, vulgar and insulting to women. The term "MILF" should only be used to market adult film stars and not highly trained and disciplined flight attendants.
The flying public needs to take a stand against misogyny and and the coarsening of public discourse by not patronizing airlines that demean and humiliate women. I wouldn't book a flight on Spirit even if they were the only airline in the world.
Spirit management is putting the flight attendants in a very difficult position, how is a flight attendant going to tell a passenger that he's had too much to drink when she's wearing a "Bud" patch on her apron?
Spirit executives should be forced to wear a patch advertising beer on the lapel of their designer suits, and they should be forced to refer to their significant other as "MILF".
Robert Paul Reyes is a NewsBlaze writer on Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze.
Robert Reyes
* The views of Opinion writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NewsBlaze
Search News
