Swedish regulator slams Ryanair over ‘sexy’ ad campaign

Ryanair, the low-cost airline headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, has been reprimanded by the Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising of Sweden, known by its Swedish initials ERK, for an advertisement campaign run by the airline featuring a scantily dressed woman posing as a schoolgirl.

What angered ERK most was the fact that Ryanair’s sale promotion campaign coincided with the start of the school year, the Swedish newspaper The Local reported.

The controversial advertisement depicts a smiling “schoolgirl” in a mini-skirt and short blouse standing beside a blackboard announcing the “hottest back-to-school prices.”

Ryanair, the largest low-cost carrier of Europe, has its biggest operational base at London’s Stansted Airport in the United Kingdom. The carrier has been marked by rapid expansion a result of the deregulation of the airline industry in Europe in 1997. Ryanair is also the third largest airline in Europe in terms of passenger numbers.

Sweden’s Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising (ERK), founded in 1988, is a self-regulating, private body.  The organisation bases its decisions on the ICC International Code of Advertising Practice, but has also added three supplements to the ICC’s Article 4 dealing with sexism.

According to Sweden’s Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising, the woman in the school uniform “is used to catch the eye in a sexual manner that is offensive to women in general.”

Ryanair, the newspaper The Local reported, declined to comment on the campaign when asked for an explanation by the Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising.

Instead, in a statement, Ryanair defended “the right of Swedish girls to take their clothes off” and claimed that Sweden’s Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising “was out of touch with the Britney Spears generation.”

Ryanair also asked whether the ERK accurately reflected the views of most Swedes, adding: “We are sure that the anti-funsters at the ERK do not speak for the majority of the famously liberal and easygoing Swedes. The ad simply reflects the way a lot of young girls like to dress. We hope the old farts at the ERK loosen up a little.”

The Local quoted a spokesman of Ryanair as remarking: “The advertisement simply reflects reality. This is the Britney Spears generation, and young women around Europe want to look their best.”

The spokesman also said that Ryanair had received no complaints from the advertisement campaigns run in the United Kingdom and Ireland which used the same image. He told the newspaper that “the airline does not rule out the possibility of re-launching the campaign because it has generated so much interest.”