"Red Hot" Campaign Is A Lesson In Sexism

For Virgin Atlantic‘s 25th Anniversary they are giving us a retro ad campaign, complete with short skirts and obvious sexism.

Although the Advertising Standards Authority received 29 complaints about the crappy message in this £6m ad campaign, it has already ruled that it is “unlikely to be seen as sexist or derogatory towards women or to cause serious or widespread offence.” The commercial in question runs with the tag line “Still red hot” and features a pilot walking with his glamorous, all-female crew. Men in the airport drool as the women stroll by, and one man squirts some secret sauce out of his hamburger as he stares at the ladies. Several women from another airline are shown, dressed in gray and with their hair up, shaking their heads at the sexed-up group from Virgin.

This last image is particularly annoying when you take into account Virgin’s misogynistic history: in 2005 a tribunal in Australia ruled that Virgin Blue had discriminated against eight female flight attendants from a rival company, who were not hired because they “weren’t young or attractive enough.” Virgin, thrilled to be let off the hook, claims that the 29 complains probably came from other airlines “jealous” of their “fantastic cabin and flight crew.”