In Red Hot Water: Ryanair Forced To Scrap Ad

Budget airline Ryanair has landed in hot water over a "sexist" advertising campaign featuring a scantily-clad model.

The promotion, which ran with the slogan "Red Hot Fares & Crew", has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after it sparked a string of complaints.

One flight attendant claimed it portrayed cabin crew as glamour models.

Thousands of people backed calls for the adverts to be scrapped and the ASA concluded the campaign was likely to cause "widespread offence".

It said one image, entitled "Ornella February", which showed a model pulling down the top of her pants with a thumb, was particularly "sexually suggestive".

Ryanair said the promotion featured shots taken from its 2012 cabin crew charity calendar.

It claimed the pictures were not sexist because staff had volunteered to produce the images, the watchdog said.

But the ASA disagreed and ruled the adverts could not appear again.

"We also considered that most readers would interpret these images, in conjunction with the text 'Red hot fares & crew!!!' and the names of the women, as linking female cabin crew with sexually suggestive behaviour," it said.

The promotion caused a furore when it was launched last year and more than 5,000 people lent their support to the online campaign, led by a flight attendant called Ghada.

At the time she said: "Safety is our number-one priority, not the brand of our underwear."

Ryanair said there were 17 complaints to the ASA about the adverts, and that the calendar from which the images were taken were bought by 10,000 every year "and for this reason Ryanair will continue to produce, promote and advertise our charity calendars".

Meanwhile, the ASA has dismissed complaints about a billboard featuring a naked Tamara Ecclestone with just two magazines to protect her modesty.

The promotion for her fly-on-the-wall TV show showed the 27-year-old apparently wearing nothing but a bracelet. The ASA ruled that while it may be distasteful, it did not objectify women.

The watchdog also said a Marks & Spencer poster featuring two women wearing lingerie in a bedroom, which received a series of complaints after it went up in Tube stations, did not breach advertising codes.