Spirit Airlines Sends Promotional Email Joking About Celebrity Nudes

Some (perhaps now former) Spirit Airlines customers are displeased about an email the airline sent promoting a new sale they’re having on flights.

While “Bare Fare” is a term Spirit has been using for awhile to brag about their cheap flights, this copy is new:

Our Bare Fare Was Leaked!

We feel naked; you were never supposed to see this Bare Fare! It was meant for a special someone (who isn’t you). Now it’s all over the internet for you to take advantage of as you see fit. Scandalous! We thought the cloud was our friend, y’know, because we spend so much time flying with ’em. But now our private prices are on display! Bad for us; GREAT for you.

Multiple readers forward the email to Jezebel; one commented that it’s “Nice to see that a corporation is finding a way to profit from this sex crime,” while another said she found it “wildly inappropriate.” Many others shared their displeasure about the email on Twitter. Update: a spokesman for the company has given the following statement:

The ad talks about our “Bare Fare” which is a campaign we launched in May. It was not meant to be offensive.

Spirit isn’t your typical airline. We’re different. In most cases different means saving our customers a lot of money on their air travel. When it comes to advertising, different means finding ways to educate our customers about our fares and special offers, that don’t require a lot of advertising dollars – because that just increases airfares. But we’re also different because our ads are fun and often irreverent. We have a long history of taking major, national news stories and connecting them to our marketing. Most people think they’re funny, and accept them for what they are. We realize and accept that a small group of people might not think the same way.

We have since taken the ad down and replaced it with another ad also tied to a trending news story up in its place (Reclining seats on airplanes debate).