Posted on 12/29/2017 1:45:36 PM PST by nickcarraway
Vietnam's VietJet Aviation said on Thursday (Dec 28) it was standing by a controversial "bikini" calendar, a marketing ploy featuring scantily clad female models that has prompted criticism in conservative South-east Asia and beyond.
The annual calendar, which has gone viral online, is part of a broader marketing push by VietJet that has propelled the start-up airline's rapid growth, as it has taken market share from Vietnam Airlines.
The publication of the 2018 calendar - which critics say overly sexualises the image of flight attendants and other airline staff - comes as there is a growing debate in the global airlines industry about sexual harassment and in-flight assault of both passengers and employees.
VietJet, founded by Ms Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao - Vietnam's first female billionaire and one of a handful of women running a major airline globally - said the calendar emphasised the free choice of people to wear whatever they wanted.
READ ALSO VietJet Air releases 2018 calendar featuring bikini-clad models (yes, again) VietJet Air releases 2018 calendar featuring bikini-clad models (yes, again) "We are not upset when people associate us with the bikini image. If that makes people delighted and happy, then we'll be happy," Mr Luu Duc Khanh, VietJet's managing director, said in e-mailed comments to Reuters.
When asked about the views of Ms Thao, Mr Khanh said the CEO thought people "have the right to wear whatever they like, bikini or traditional ao dai", referring to the traditional Vietnamese long dress.
Ms Thao was unavailable for an interview.
The calendar has caused an online storm in Vietnam, with some people criticising and others defending the campaign. The 2018 calendar and a YouTube video of the photo shoot have been viewed more than 910,000 times since first appearing at the end of last month.
"I think (the calendar) is beautiful, not unpleasant at all," one user posted on Facebook under the avatar Mai Co. Another person, named as Van Nhi, said the airline was "creating scandal to gain attention". "It's getting more unpleasant."
Critics say VietJet's risque marketing, including the calendar and bikini fashion shows on board planes, presented an archaic and sexist image of cabin crew, even as the risk of harassment and assault go widely underreported.
VietJet is "taking us back 50 years by hyper-sexualising a female dominated work group in order to make a few bucks off a couple of cheesy calendars", said Ms Heather Poole, a veteran US flight attendant and author of a book about working the not-always-friendly skies.
"Women have to work so hard to be taken seriously, and in this case it's a woman in charge taking us back to the days of 'Coffee, Tea or Me?'," she added, alluding to a 1960s book about two fictitious female flight attendants that emphasised their sexual appetite.
วันนี้ วันที่ 18 ธ.ค.60 สายการบิน VietJetAir เปิดไฟล์ปฐมฤกษ์ เส้นทาง ดาลัด ( Dalat) สายการบิน1/3
Mr Khanh said Vietjet flight attendants have been trained to handle sexual harassment situations.
VietJet is not the first firm to use racy calendars to raise its profile. Italian tyre maker Pirelli - known for its calendars of glamorous female models - has overhauled the annual offering in recent years with less of a focus on nudity.
Irish budget carrier Ryanair Holdings in 2014 scrapped an annual charity calendar featuring female cabin crew posing in bikinis in favour of more family-friendly images.
Mr Khanh, who said the proceeds from sales of the VietJet calendar go to charity, acknowledged that there could be big changes in the content for the next version.
"Male models is a good idea for us to introduce in our calendars next year," he said.
Nice set of . . . tools.
I hope this airline comes to the United States soon. I will be willing to pay a little extra for the ticket.
“Gone are the days when a US Airline could pick who they feel represents their product and shows it off the best. Now they’re forced to hire dogs.”
In the late seventies the airline hostess’s were hot. The problem is today it is the same girls. I am old too but I am buying the ticket. I want the same class of ladies as in the past!
Planes? There were planes in those pictures? Sorry, I must have been distracted.
In 1970, my family flew back from Hawaii on Christmas day, the only other passenger was Ed Asner. Evidently he wanted some worship, so he came back to talk to my family/ My Dad, a staunch Conservative, didn’t say a word to him. I went to the back of the plane where the stewardesses where drinking champaign and relaxing. I had a “lay”over in Chicago. Best flight ever!
France finally came up with a
Winning Combo!
Amazing the power of good makeup.
I didn’t see the planes.
Is it true communists have more fun?
Well, no, but the more liberals run things, the more you can’t tell the difference.
That’s a pretty cool story! I like the champagne and relaxing thing...you can almost imagine the reams of policies and procedures now to prevent alcohol from passing their lips on company property (the plane)
I’m with your dad on Ed Asner!
Heheheheheh...that was SOOOOOO Seventies!
Right up there with Supertrain.
She says that like it's a bad thing!
Now, I had a good time in the Seventies, even though the country was largely in a nasty recession about the whole time!
I was only a kid in a small SC farm town.
There wasn’t much there.
Now it’s a Charlotte suburb in everything but name.
A few towns in SC are like where I grew up still. Cameron and North come to mind.
The owner of the airlines is a Vietnamese woman - who looks pretty good in her own right.
“Five dallah, short time! ten dallah all night!”
Approved!
Me neither...However I bet the critics would love the ads and calendar if our gracious FORMER FLOTUS was allowed to pose in a gorillakini with them...After all, she is the "most admired woman" in the world...They say...
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